Vnitr Lek 2010, 56(6):513-516

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

V. Kojecký^*, M. Lukaštíková

Interní klinika IPVZ Praha, Krajská nemocnice T. Bati, a.s., Zlín, přednosta doc. MUDr. Čestmír Čihalík, CSc.

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.

Keywords: pulmonary hypertension; haemolysis; celiac disease

Received: December 14, 2009; Accepted: March 3, 2010; Published: June 1, 2010  Show citation