Clinicians should consider a potential allergic reaction to e-cigarettes in someone presenting with an atypical respiratory illness, doctors advise.
In a case study published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, Dr Jayesh Mahendra Bhatt, a paediatric respiratory physician at Nottingham University Hospital, UK and colleagues detail the case of a 16-year-old boy diagnosed with hypersensitivity pneumonitis linked to vaping.
The patient presented to the emergency department with a week-long history of fever, cough and increasing difficulty breathing despite taking antibiotics and inhaled salbutamol.
Upon admission, his condition deteriorated rapidly and intractable respiratory failure meant that he eventually needed ECMO. Following further treatment, he developed a critical illness, steroid myopathy and required prolonged rehabilitation.
The patient revealed that he had recently started vaping two different types of e-cigarette liquid. The listed ingredients for both vaping liquids were the same apart from the unnamed flavourings.
He had not been in contact with farm animals, birds or recently travelled overseas and had not recently smoked cannabis.