Date: 26 November 2013
Recurrent pulmonary shadows 1. 6 Jan 1988 – chest radiograph showing right hilar enlargement, consistent with ABPA.
Recurrent pulmonary shadows 1. 3 Feb 1989 – chest radiograph showing right upper-lobe consolidation and contraction consistent with obstruction of RUL bronchus, in ABPA.
Clearing of pulmonary shadows 3, pt BJ. 5 April 1989 – resolution of shadows seen in February, with a course of corticosteroids.
Recurrence of pulmonary shadows 4, pt BJ. 2 September 1989 – recurrence of pulmonary shadows with an exacerbation of ABPA.
Central bronchiectasis, pt BJ. CT scan of thorax October 1989 showing central bronchiectasis, characteristic of ABPA (and cystic fibrosis).
Copyright: n/a
Notes:
The patient was later treated with itraconazole and reported in Denning DW, Van Wye J, Lewiston NJ, Stevens DA. Adjunctive therapy of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis with itraconazole. Chest 1991; 100: 813-819.
Images library
-
Title
Legend
-
PtDS2 –Repeated chest infections arrested by itraconazole therapy in ABPA and bronchiectasis
DS2 developed asthma age 24 and now aged 62. From about age 30 she started getting repeated chest infections and a few years later ABPA and bronchiectasis was diagnosed. Infections continued requiring multiple courses of antibiotics annually. At one point DS2 developed a pneumothorax, possibly because of excess coughing. She has chronic rhinitis and mannose binding lectin deficiency. In May 2011, she started itraconazole therapy, and has needed no antibiotic courses for her chest since. Her rhinitis with sinusitis occasionally bothers her. She is delighted to have gone 18 months with no chest infections.
,
,
-
Aspergillus hyphae (arrow) in the lumen without invasion of the necrotic bronchial wall (*) (Nicod 2001).
-
fibrinonecrotic material (arrow) from the airway shown in A, with subocclusion of the bronchial lumen (*)
-
Fibrinous or pseudomembranous bronchitis (arrow) with subocclusion of the airways (* indicates subocclusion of the airways by pseudomembranes)
-
Bronchoscopic biopsy demonstrated septate hyphae with branching at 45o (methenamine silver stain ×400).