Pulmonary Kaposi's sarcoma presenting as fulminant respiratory failure.

A 32-year-old black man, a homosexual patient with a history of lymphadenopathy, presented with diarrhea, weight loss, and a bilateral interstitial infiltrate. Within days after admission, the patient developed dyspnea with rapid progression to respiratory failure and a rapid increase of the infiltrate. An open-lung biopsy showed Kaposi's sarcoma. Treatment with chemotherapy reversed the respiratory failure.