[HRCT findings for four cases of measles pneumonia].

Although, in Western countries, adult-onset pneumonia that is associated with measles is not rare, reports of its incidence in Japan have been sparse. Among eight adolescent and adult (16-34-year-old) measles patients hospitalized in National Sanatorium Tsuruga Hospital, we found four in whom chest radiography and CT revealed pneumonia. The high-resolution lung CTs of these patients revealed features differing from those characteristic of bacterial pneumonia: bronchial wall thickness, centrilobular nodules in ground glass opacity, interstitial lesions (interlobular septal thickening, fissure thickening, pleural effusion) and lymphadenopathy. Of these findings, the centrilobular nodules in ground glass opacity were marked in these cases, and so this may be the most prominent finding in measles pneumonia; and furthermore, since interlobular septal thickening has not been reported in mycoplasma pneumonia or other atypical pneumonias, it may indicate a measles-specific, virus-induced pneumonia.