Abstract
Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is a fungal infection with high mortality and morbidity rates. This disease is caused by several Aspergillus species and affects patients with an underlying respiratory condition. This pilot study aims to recognize CPA among patients with different respiratory diseases. Twenty-one out of 47 patients were classified as CPA based on the examination of clinical signs and symptoms, radiological findings, mycological culture of respiratory samples and analysis of Aspergillus IgG antibodies. There was a close association between high levels of Aspergillus IgG antibodies and the presence of cavities. Although Aspergillus flavus was the predominant species among clinical isolates, the number of isolates was small to reach conclusions on the prevalence of this species as main cause of CPA in Cuba. From the eleven evaluable patients for the treatment with itraconazole (Lozartil®), nine improved their health status while two did not show any recovery. This drug is included in the therapy schemes for aspergillosis in Cuba.
Highlights
Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is a fungal infection that causes the death of more than450,000 patients around the world every year and the estimated morbidity rate is more than 3,000,000 patients per year [1]
Table summarizes comorbidities associated to patients with CPA
Idiopathic bronchiectasis), yet there was no association between these conditions, which does not mean that patients with these characteristics are “safe groups”
Summary
Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is a fungal infection that causes the death of more than450,000 patients around the world every year and the estimated morbidity rate is more than 3,000,000 patients per year [1]. Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is a fungal infection that causes the death of more than. Patients with CPA are commonly non-immunocompromised individuals and must have an underlying lung condition such as cavities, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bullous lung disease after or through pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), undetermined bronchiectasis or pneumothorax [3]. In Cuba, there are high indexes of COPD (~39.5 per 100,000), lung cancer (~58.3 per 100,000) and tabaquism (~19,676.3 per 100,000) and there is a National Program for the Control of PTB, there are new cases of the disease every year (~5.9 per 100,000) [4,5]. Because of the clinical likeness of CPA with other respiratory diseases, it is not rare to misdiagnose it as other mycoses or bacterial infections. The diagnosis of CPA is an integrated process where the clinicians must analyze clinical features of the patient, radiological images and lab results from
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