A 54-year-old male with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis diagnosed by lung biopsy in 1999.
The patient had a history of smoking and drinking alcohol.
She had a baseline situation of dyspnea on minimal exertion and home therapy.
She consulted in August 2000 for self-limiting abdominal pain.
Physical examination revealed only generalized dry crackles.
Complete laboratory analysis was rigorously normal, and tumor markers showed an increase of CA 19.9: 145 IU/ml (vn: 0-37), with CEA and AFP negative.
Upper and lower endoscopy, abdominal ultrasound, CT and magnetic resonance cholangiography showed no significant changes.
In successive controls, this marker progressively increased to a maximum value of 253 IU/ml in August 2002, parallel to worsening respiratory function.
A study with imaging techniques was repeated without finding any changes with respect to the previous ones.
The patient died 6 months later due to worsening of his respiratory disease.
