Acute chest syndrome as the inaugural sign of sickle cell anemia. A case report and review of the literature

Acute chest syndrome is a frequent complication of sickle cell disease. This syndrome is characterized by recent infiltrate on chest X-ray with chest pain or fever or dyspnea. We report the case of a 26-year-old man in whom an acute chest syndrome with fat embolism was the inaugural sign of sickle cell disease. This report illustrates the frequency of potentially serious fat embolism in the acute chest syndrome and the importance of bronchoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage (fatty macrophages) for determining the etiology of acute chest syndrome.