Orthopnea as a trigger for a diagnostic cascade of multiple infectious diseases.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Dyspnea is a common clinical symptom and cause of outpatient and inpatient presentations to the clinic. Diagnostic and therapeutic challenges appear, when additional diseases appear that are themselves associated with subjectively perceptible dyspnea. We report on a young woman with orthopnea as a trigger of a diagnostic cascade of various diseases.

Case presentation

A 34-year-old woman presented to our emergency department with breathing-dependent, burning thoracic pain, purulent sputum and hemoptysis for three days. Pre-existing diagnoses were psoriasis vulgaris and diabetes mellitus (type 2). Human monoclonal antibody secukinumab and methotrexate were regular drugs.We suspected a community-acquired pneumonia or bacterial co-infection of acute COVID-19. A bronch

SUBMITTER: Bauer M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12409317 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature