Klin Farmakol Farm. 2018;32(4):21-31 | DOI: 10.36290/far.2018.025

Drug-induced lung injury

Vladimíra Lošťáková¹, Milan Kuna², Vítězslav Kolek¹, Filip Čtvrtlík³, Gabriela Vaculová²

¹ Klinika plicních nemocí a tuberkulózy FN a LF UP Olomouc

² Oddělení klinické farmacie, Lékárna FN Olomouc

³ Radiologická klinika FN Olomouc

The treatment of various types of diseases can be associated with a number of adverse side effects of drugs. Drugs that can cause lungdisease are constantly on the increase. This is due to not only the development of new drugs, but also the use of modern diagnosticmeans allowing more accurate investigation. The mainstay of diagnosing drug-induced injury is the identification of a drug that, withcertain probability, could have induced lung injury. To identify it among other drugs that a patient is taking as well as to distinguishdrug-induced injury from a possible exacerbation of an existing lung disease is difficult. The most common drugs that cause injury tothe lung parenchyma include amiodarone, cytostatic drugs, immunosuppressants, antibiotics, and those used for biological therapyof systemic diseases or tumours. Drug-induced lung injury may follow an acute or subacute/chronic course. It is usually reversible afterwithdrawal of the causal drug or with timely initiation of treatment. The complaints do not differ from those in other lung diseases(cough, sometimes with coughing up of blood; breathing difficulties; shortness of breath; and chest pain). Neither clinical types norradiological or pathological changes suggestive of a specific phenotype of drug-induced injury are known. Most commonly, there isapparent interstitial involvement with various phenotypes of interstitial pulmonary processes (IPP). However, drug-induced lung injurymay even lead to airway or pleural disease. A list of drugs that represent a risk of lung disease is available at www.pneumotox.com.

Keywords: drug‑induced
lung injury, mechanism of drug action, risk factors, diagnosis, phenotypes of interstitial lung disorder

Published: January 1, 2019  Show citation