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Aspergillosis: a disease with many faces
1Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, USA.
Seminars in Roentgenology
|January 1, 1996
Summary
Aspergillus causes pulmonary diseases including mycetoma, invasive aspergillosis, and allergic forms. Treatment varies from surgery for mycetoma to antifungals for invasive types and steroids or antigen avoidance for allergic reactions.
Area of Science:
- Pulmonology
- Mycology
- Infectious Diseases
Background:
- Aspergillus species are fungi capable of causing a spectrum of pulmonary diseases in humans.
- Pulmonary aspergillosis can manifest in distinct clinical forms, each with unique characteristics and treatment challenges.
Purpose of the Study:
- To categorize the primary forms of pulmonary aspergillosis.
- To outline the characteristic presentations and current therapeutic strategies for each form.
Main Methods:
- Review of clinical presentations and treatment outcomes for different types of aspergillosis.
- Classification based on pathological and clinical manifestations.
Main Results:
- Pulmonary aspergillosis is broadly classified into mycetoma, invasive aspergillosis, and allergic forms.
- Mycetoma requires surgery; invasive aspergillosis has limited treatment success with amphotericin B; allergic forms include allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and bronchocentric granulomatosis (treated with steroids), and hypersensitivity lung (managed by antigen avoidance).
- Occasional overlap between these distinct clinical types is observed.
Conclusions:
- Effective management of pulmonary aspergillosis depends on accurate diagnosis and classification into mycetoma, invasive, or allergic categories.
- Treatment strategies are diverse, ranging from surgical intervention and antifungal therapy to immunosuppression and environmental control, highlighting the complexity of Aspergillus-related lung diseases.