《Case Report》.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Case Reports in Cardiology Volume 2012, Article ID 723407, 4 pages doi:10.1155/2012/723407 Case Report Respiratory Syncytial Virus Pneumonia Treated with Lower-Dose Palivizumab in a Heart Transplant Recipient J. L. Grodin,1 K. S. Wu,1 E. E. Kitchell,1, 2 J. Le,1, 2 J. D. Mishkin,1, 3 M. H. Drazner,1, 3 and D. W. Markham1, 3 1 Department of Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA 2 Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA 3 Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA Correspondence should be addressed to D. W. Markham, david.markham@ Received 3 October 2011; Accepted 20 October 2011 Academic Editors: K.-R. Chiou and T. Kasai Copyright © 2012 J. L. Grodin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important community-acquired pathogen that can cause significant morbidity and mortality in patients who have compromised pulmonary function, are elderly, or are immunosuppressed. This paper describes a 70-year-old man with a remote history of heart transplantation who presented with signs and symptoms of pneumonia. Chest computed tomography (CT) imaging demonstrated new patchy ground glass infiltrates throughout the upper and lower lobes of the left lung, and the RSV direct fluorescence antibody (DFA) was positive. The patient received aerosolized ribavirin, one dose of intravenous immunoglobulin, and one dose of palivizumab. After two months of f