Occasionally, crackles or wheezes may be heard on lung auscultation. Patients with drug-induced pulmonary eosinophilia commonly have crackles on physical examination. Stool examination Parasites and ova can be found in the stool 6-12 weeks after the initial parasitic infection. Pulmonary symptoms usually resolve by the time parasitic forms are found in the stool. Larvae are occasionally found in sputum and gastric aspirates at the time of pulmonary symptoms.
Roentgenographic abnormalities can be unilateral or bilateral.
Most patients have peripheral densities, usually of a combined interstitial and alveolar pattern and often a few centimeters in diameter, although they may coalesce into larger areas of consolidation. Densities are generally transient, migratory, and disappear completely within 2-4 weeks. In drug-induced pulmonary eosinophilia, radiographic abnormalities resolve completely several weeks after withdrawal of the offending drug. Pleural effusions may be present in patients with nitrofurantoin toxicity. A case of eosinophilic pleural effusion with peripheral blood eosinophilia has been described with valproic acid administration.