I was diagnosed in 2003 with a condition called BOOP - Bronchial Obliterans Organizing Pneumonia. In March 2003, I woke up one morning with what I thought was a stiff neck. After a week of pain I visited my chiropractor who had treated me successfully for this condition 10 years earlier. This time, I wasn't so lucky and ended up having a MRI for what I thought might be a pinched nerve. To cut a very long story short, after a multitude of tests, the last one being lung surgery for a biopsy, I was diagnosed with the above condition. The pain in my hands, arms, neck, and back were horrendous. Not one physician would positively say I had RA. I was put on Prednisone for the BOOP and that drug took care of the pain and swelling in my arms, etc. After stopping the Prednisone 18 months later, the pain returned in my hands and arms, although not as severely. I found a wonderful rheumatologist in Manhattan who diagnosed me with RA. He put me on 4,000 mgs of Azulfidine and I started to feel better. He reduced my dose to 3,000 mgs and I was feeling great until he retired and I had to find another physician. No one believed I had RA and last January a new rheumatologist decided I didn't have RA and was going to take me off the Azulfidine. He reduced my dose to 1,000 mgs with the intention of taking me off completely. About six weeks later the pain returned and I looked for a new doctor. I have not been without pain since. I did find another rheumatologist who took lots of blood and sent some of it out of state to be tested. The results came back last week and, finally, someone else has diagnosed me as positively having RA. I am back up on 3,000 mgs of Azulfidine but this time the pain is not going away. Since I suffer also with GIRD, anti-inflammatory pain relievers kill my stomach. I am just coming off one month of Prednisone and still feel horrible. Is there anyone out there who has heard of BOOP with RA? I am so scared that my lungs will become infected again with these infiltrates from the BOOP. Not one physician can tell me what came first; the RA or the BOOP. Sorry about this long posting, but there was a lot to tell.
So did the BOOP resolve? I dont know that much about it. I am sorry to hear you went through such an ordeal with the RA docs. It is awful what some of these doctors do to people.Crunchy,
Being your a nurse I'm sure you've heard of this, it is also known as :Synonyms and related keywords: BOOP, cryptogenic organizing pneumonia, COP, Ardystil syndrome, nonspecific interstitial pneumonia with fibrosis, proliferative bronchiolitis, pulmonary disease, pneumonia, organizing pneumonia, idiopathic organizing pneumonia.
Sorry I wasn't done with the post and hit the wrong key.
Boop is a radiology term and has associations with: Drugs and toxins: BOOP is associated with exposure to minocycline; gold; cephalosporin; acebutolol; sulfasalazine; mesalazine; bucillamine; interferon beta-1a; nitrofurantoin; amiodarone; ticlopidine; carbamazepine; phenytoin; sotalol; rapid intravenous cyclophosphamide pulse therapy; a combination of cytosine arabinoside, anthracyclines, and massive L-tryptophan ingestion, Sauropus androgynus vegetable poisoning, exposure to paint aerosols in textile workers, nylon flock workers, silo-filler's disease, free-base cocaine use, and smoke inhalation.
Infections: Infection may be caused by Coxiella burnetii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, or Mycoplasma species. A possible association exists with human herpesvirus 7 after lung transplantation and with Pneumocystis carinii in patients receiving tacrolimus after liver transplantation. Infection can be caused by influenza A virus, measles virus, parvovirus B19, HIV, Chlamydia species, Plasmodium vivax, or Plasmodium malariae
Radiation therapy: In patients treated with radiation therapy for small cell bronchogenic carcinoma or breast cancer, BOOP may affect the ipsilateral or contralateral lung.
more break down with causes can be found on this link:
http://www.emedicine.com/radio/topic117.htm
Hope this helps you to understand what BOOP is since it really wasn't explained and may this will also give her some idea as to what can be done.
Good luck and hope you get better.
So if I am understanding this correctly than is it assumed that the resp. condition was not related to the RA? If BOOP is a radiological term then it just the condition which is seen or may be seen when a person has one of various resp. illnesses. Right?