A Case of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis in an Jmmunocompetent Host.

Lim, Young Hee; Cheon, Eun Mee; Kim, Ho Cheol; Kwon, O Jung; Suh, Gee Young; Park, Jeong Woong; Rhee, Chong H; Lee, Jae Young; Lee, Kyung Soo; Han, Jeong Ho

doi:1998.45.1.197

Tuberc Respir Dis > Volume 45(1); 1998 > Article

Case Report

Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases 1998;45(1):197-203.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4046/trd.1998.45.1.197 Published online February 1, 1998.

A Case of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis in an Jmmunocompetent Host.

Young Hee Lim, Eun Mee Cheon, Ho Cheol Kim, O Jung Kwon, Gee Young Suh, Jeong Woong Park, Chong H Rhee, Jae Young Lee, Kyung Soo Lee, Jeong Ho Han

¹Sung Kyun Kwan University, College of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Department of Internal Medicine, Korea.
²Sung Kyun Kwan University, College of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Division of pulmonology, Division of Diagnostic Radiology, Korea.
³Sung Kyun Kwan University, College of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Division of Diagnostic Pathology, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is a disease occuring predominantly in patients with defects in immunity such as neutropenia, hematologic malignancies or with defects in cell-mediated immunity. The isolation of Aspergillus from respiratory tract of normal host usually signifies tracheobronchial colonization, making this diagnosis difficult. There are isolated case reports occuring in normal hosts but most of them were diagnosed postmortem at autopsies indicating that early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis in normal host is difficult. We describe here a case of invasive aspergillosis in a immunocompetent host diagnosed by lung biopsy which was successfully treated with Amphotericin-B. Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis should be included as one of the differential diagnosis if a patient with pneumonic consolidation does not respond to usual therapy, even if the patient does not have any defect in immunity.

Key Words: Invasive aspergillosis, Immunocompetent host