Mesalazine toxicity

EDITOR, - The case reported by A G Lim and K R Hine, in which a patient developed a reaction to mesalazine, 1 prompts me to describe a case.

A 30 year old woman presented with a five week history of bilateral pleuritic chest pain. She had increasing shortness of breath (though no wheezing), a non-productive cough, and intermittent fevers and had lost 7 kg in weight. She had a 14 year history of ulcerative colitis, which had remained quiescent for 18 months. Her drug treatment consisted of oral mesalazine 800 mg twice …