[Pulmonary hypertension--unusual complication of haemolysis and the bacterial overgrowth syndrome].

The authors describe a case of a patient with celiac disease in whom a secondary bacterial overgrowth had developed in the small intestine. Vitamin B12 and folic acid consumption deficiency resulted in a development of macrocytary anaemia and non-immune haemolysis. Subsequently, within a few weeks, a significant pulmonary hypertension has developed, the cause of which was first unclear. Haemolysis as well as pulmonary hypertension ceased following bacterial overgrowth treatment and B12 and, later on, folic acid substitution. Retrospectively, the authors infer that this could have been the haemolytic anaemia-associated pulmonary hypertension syndrome.