Sixty five patients with pulmonary eosinophilia attending one respiratory unit were reviewed. All had fleeting radiographic abnormalities and peripheral blood eosinophil counts greater than 500 x 10(6)/l. Eighteen had a single episode and 47 recurrent episodes during a median follow up period of 14 years. Thirty three patients had allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis on the basis of a positi...

Aspergillus fumigatus, a ubiquitous fungus, causes a wide spectrum of clinical conditions ranging from allergic to invasive aspergillosis depending upon the hosts' immune status. Several animal models have been generated to mimic the human clinical conditions in allergic and invasive aspergillosis. The onset, duration and severity of the disease developed in models varied depending on the anima...

The ubiquitous opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus rarely causes infections in immunocompetent individuals. A healthy functional innate immune system plays a crucial role in preventing Aspergillus-infection. This pivotal role for the innate immune system makes it a main research focus in studying the pathogenesis of aspergillosis. Although sometimes overshadowed by the innate im...

BACKGROUND Voriconazole treatment increases early survival of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients with invasive aspergillosis. We investigated whether this survival advantage translates into an increased long-term survival. DESIGN AND METHODS This retrospective study involved all patients with an invasive aspergillosis diagnosis transplanted between September 1997 and Dec...

Invasive aspergillosis (IA), generally considered an opportunistic infection in immunocompromised hosts, is associated with high morbidity and mortality. IA commonly occurs in the respiratory tract with isolated reports of aspergillosis infection in the nasal sinuses, central nervous system, skin, liver, and urinary tract. Extra-pulmonary aspergillosis is usually observed in disseminated diseas...

Background: Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis (CPA) is a destructive pulmonary disease caused by fungal infection, frequent complication

RATIONALE The clinical relevance of Aspergillus-positive endotracheal aspirates in critically ill patients is difficult to assess. OBJECTIVES We externally validate a clinical algorithm to discriminate Aspergillus colonization from putative invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in this patient group. METHODS We performed a multicenter (n = 30) observational study including critically ill patient...

BACKGROUND The performance of serum biomarkers for the early detection of invasive aspergillosis expectedly depends on the timing of test results relative to the empirical administration of antifungal therapy during neutropenia, although a dynamic evaluation framework is lacking. METHODS We developed a multi-state model describing simultaneously the likelihood of empirical antifungal therapy ...

Pseudomembranous necrotising bronchial aspergillosis is a variety of invasive aspergillosis found in immunosuppressed patients. A case is presented of a 66 year old woman whose only underlying disease was chronic airways limitation. The pathological findings and clinical implications are discussed.

We describe an unusual case of fulminant tracheobronchial and pulmonary aspergillosis presenting as acute respiratory distress syndrome. The patient, who was apparently immunocompetent, was admitted with severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria but died from aspergillosis.