Pulmonary aspergillosis; allergic bronchopulmonary type

Causes and Risks:
Aspergillosis is caused by a fungus (aspergillus) that is commonly in the environment growing on dead leaves, stored grain, bird droppings, compost stacks, or other decaying vegetation.

It causes illness in 3 ways: as an allergic reaction in people with asthma or cystic fibrosis ; as a colonization in an old healed lung cavity from previous disease such as tuberculosis or lung abscess where it produces a fungus ball called aspergilloma ; and as an invasive infection with pneumonia that is spread to other parts of the body by the blood stream.

Allergic aspergillosis occurs most often in people 20 to 40 years old. The incidence is 4 out of 100,000 people.

Prevention:
People with predisposing factors ( asthma , cystic fibrosis , and so on) should avoid the environments where this fungus is found.

Symptoms:



Signs and Tests:



Treatment:
Allergic aspergillosis is treated with oral prednisone. Some people may benefit from allergy desensitization. Antifungal agents do not help people with allergic aspergillosis.

Prognosis:
The response to therapy is usually good, with gradual improvement over time.

Complications:



Call Your Healthcare Provider:
Call your health care provider if symptoms of this disorder develop.

Call your health care provider if breathing becomes more difficult. Severe breathing difficulty is an emergency condition.


Aspergillosis is a fungal infection. The fungus invades and destroys tissue. This type of infection usually occurs in immunocompromised individuals. Here, a chest X-ray shows that the fungus has invaded the lung tissue (the lungs are usually seen as black areas on an X-ray; the cloudiness on the left side of this X-ray is caused by the fungus).