Pulmonary capillaritis leading to alveolar hemorrhage in a juvenile idiopathic arthritis patient: first description

Abstract

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is characterized by the typical joint involvement and some patients have extra-articular lesions, such as uveitis and pleuritis. However, until this date, no case of alveolar hemorrhage in JIA has been described. Herein, the authors describe a case of a male patient, 33 years old diagnosed as polyarticular JIA who had a dramatic evolution with alveolar hemorrhage secondary to pulmonary capillaritis. He received intravenous immunoglobulin and pulse therapies with glucocorticoid and cyclophosphamide with a satisfactory outcome. In addition, the authors review this important pulmonary complication in rheumatic diseases.