A case report of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis which could not be saved in spite of making an early diagnosis

Abstract

A seventy-one year old male with pemphigus vulgaris and treated with steroid therapy for long periods of 7 months was suffered from invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. He complained of a productive cough and the chest X-p indicated a mild infiltration shadow in his both lungfields. He was treated by intravenous antibiotics and no clinical improvement was observed. Two days after the onset of the clinical respiratory symptoms, he was transferred to the division of respiratory diseases and the diagnosis of aspergillosis was confirmed by serological and histopathological studies on the same day. Intravenous amphotericin B and oral itraconazole administrations were started immediately after the diagnosis was made. However, the progression of the disease was so rapid and his immune condition was too weak to respond to the treatment. The overall clinical course of the case was extremely short only 5 days.