Date: 26 November 2013
Image c. 3 yr old boy with CNS aspergillosis pt TS. MRI scan pre-amphotericin B
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Notes:
A 3 year old boy, quite active and healthy clinically, who has CNS aspergillosis. He was first seen about 4 months ago for a red eye, which turned out to be panophthalmitis; culture yielded Aspergillus spp. He received 2 weeks of iv amphotericin and was sent home by the ophthalmologists. No h/o eye trauma. He returned 2 weeks ago with focal fits, and the MR showed several lesions bilaterally (including ring enhancing lesions) and normal sinuses, and a brain bx showed fungal hyphae (no culture this time). His immune status (normal WCC and neutrophil function so far) was investigated.
He was given conventional amphotericin for 8 weeks, and switched to oral itraconazole. We had to limit the ampho to 0.7 mg/kg owing to toxicity (mainly hypokalaemia).
The MRI scan was repeated at about 6 weeks, and generally showed good improvement (scans e-h). The enhancement/flare were gone but remained in a few lesions, the lesions themselves were all either gone or much smaller. Further investigations revealed the child was immunocompetent.
Patient was switched from amphotericin to oral itraconazole at week 8 essentially on a clinical assessment. Awaiting follow-up.
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Culture plates on different media. A Colonies on CZ at 24oC, B on CYA at 20oC C on SAB at 37oC, D on CYA at 24oC
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Mucous containing Charcot-Leyden crystals, stained with H & EA 57 year old woman presented with breathlessness. She had a history of mild asthma for which she occasionally took salbutamol inhaler puffs. The patient underwent a pneumonectomy because of the severity of her disease process, and uncertainty about the diagnosis, prior to serology results being obtained.Serology showed an IgE of 2600, with a strongly positive Aspergillus RAST test and weakly positive Aspergillus precipitins. Material re
