Causes of acute respiratory failure in patients with small-vessel vasculitis admitted to intensive care units: a multicenter retrospective study

Annals of Intensive Care

Table 1 Causes of acute respiratory failure associated with Svv (n = 121)

Cause of acute respiratory failure (ARF)	n	(%)
Immune ARF	67	(55)
Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH)	47	(70)
DAH with pulmonary renal syndrome	38	(57)
Interstitial lung disease	11	(16)
Pulmonary or tracheal/bronchial granulomatosis	9	(13)
Asthma	8	(12)
Myocarditis	4	(6)
Non-immune cause associated with immune ARF^a	16	(24)
Non-immune ARF	54	(45)
Pulmonary infection (confirmed or suspected)	35	(65)
Confirmed^d	24	(44)
Bacterial^d	15	(28)
Viral	5	(9)
Pneumocystis jirovecii	5	(9)
Suspected	11	(20)
Acute pulmonary edema	18	(33)
Systolic or diastolic dysfunction of the left ventricle	12	(22)
Fluid overload (no cardiac dysfunction)	6	(11)
Pulmonary embolism	6	(11)
Pneumothorax (spontaneous or iatrogenic)	4	(7)
Tumoral^c	3	(6)
Immune cause associated with non-immune ARF^b	8	(15)

Only the first admission was considered for the description of the causes of immune and non-immune ARF
Several causes were diagnosed in 52 (43%) patients: 14 patients with two or more non-immune causes, 14 patients with two or more immune causes, and 24 with a combination of immune and non-immune causes
^aNon-immune causes were associated with immune ARF in 16 patients, including acute pulmonary edema (n = 9), pulmonary infection with microbiological documentation (n = 6), and pulmonary embolism (n = 2)
^bImmune causes were associated with non-immune ARF in 8 patients, including alveolar hemorrhage (n = 3), pulmonary/bronchial granulomatosis (n = 2), interstitial lung disease (n = 2), and 1 upper airways obstruction
^cLung cancer (n = 2) and leukemia (n = 1)
^dTwo patients had a fungal infection associated with a bacterial infection: one bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and one invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, and two patients had both bacterial and viral infection