[Diagnosis of adult measles pneumonia from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction].
The case was a 32 years old female who contracted measles. Two days after the appearance of skin eruptions, ground-glass opacities and small nodular opacities were detected in both lung fields on a X-ray and a chest computed tomography (CT). CT seems to be a useful method to detect measles pneumonia. Pneumonia complicating measles may be caused by either the measles virus itself or by a secondary bacterial infection. Culture of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was negative for bacteria, acid-fast bacilli, and mycetes, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis did not detect mycoplasma, but reverse transcriptase PCR detected the measles virus. The demonstration of measles virus RNA in BALF by the reverse transcriptase PCR technique was useful for definitive diagnosis of measles pneumonia.