[Chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis complicated by pneumothorax]

A 66-year-old man was admitted to the hospital due to a rapidly progressing interstitial shadow in both lower fields on a chest roentgenogram taken on November 30 1993. The diagnosis was idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. A corticosteroid and a neutrophil elastase inhibitor were administered and the interstitial shadow resolved. A new infiltration shadow appeared in the right upper lung field one and a half months after the start of steroid therapy. This shadow gradually grew and Aspergillus fumigatus was detected in sputum cultures. In spite of treatment with FCZ+5-FC and 5-FC+AMPH, the abnormal shadow increased in size and mixed with the cavity, and the patient died of respiratory failure, with a pneumothorax caused by ruptures of the cavity formed by CNPA. The clinical and radiological course were considered to the indicative of chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis, which was described by Binder et al. in 1982.