Objective To improve the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary infiltration with eosinophilia (PIE). Methods Patients who were diagnosed with PIE in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University from January 2004 to December 2013 were recruited and retrospectively analyzed. Data of etiology, clinical manifestation, imaging and pathological features were recorded. Results pulmonary eosinophilic granuloma (PEG) (n=2), eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) (n=7), Löffler syndrome (n=4), allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) (n=16), and chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP) (n=19). There were 27 males and 21 females. 47.9% of the PIE patients were diagnosed as asthma and treated with regular treatment but had not been controlled well. PEG was characterized with wheeze and anhelation in clinical manifestations, unelevated blood eosinophil counts and percentage, significant small airway abnormalities in lung function, diffuse pneumonectasis in Chest CT, and appearance of eosinophil cells in alveole. EGPA shows dyspnea and cough in clinical manifestations, as well as other organs function damaged, unelevated blood eosinophil counts and percentage, significant FEV1/FVC and small airway abnormalities in lung function, tree-in-bud in Chest CT, appearance of eosinophilic granuloma outside blood vessels. Löffler syndrome also showed cough, shorter course of disease, normal lung function and diffusion. ABPA showed wheeze and cough, 31.3% of them with hemoptysis, normal blood eosinophil count, central bronchiectasis in Chest CT. CEP also showed dyspnea and cough. 21.1% of CEP patientshad chest pain, increasing sputum eosinophil percentage compare with blood eosinophil percentage, and small airway abnormalities in lung function. Conclusions Most of PIE patients are diagnosed as asthma but haven’t gotten well controlled under the regular anti-asthmatic treatment. Patients with PIE have increasing eosinophil counts and decreasing lung function. The diagnosis of PIE still depends on clinical manifestation, laboratory test, imaging and pathological examination.
Objective Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is characterized by anexaggerated reaction to airway colonization aspergillus which affects patients with underlying diseases such asbronchial asthma, cystic fibrosis or other respiratory diseases. ABPA exhibit significant heterogeneity due to theunderlying diseases. The clinical features of patients with ABPA were analyzed retrospectively, so as to explore theimpact of underlying diseases on clinical characteristics. Methods The clinical data of hospitalized patients diagnosed with ABPA from January 2010 to September 2019 in Peking University People's Hospital were reviewed for retrospective analysis. Results A total of 40 ABPA patients were enrolled. Of which 8 cases (20.0%) were previously diagnosed as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and/or bronchiectasis, named non-asthma group; while the other 32 cases met the diagnosis criteria of asthma, named asthma group. The non-asthma ABPA patients had a shorter course [78 (6 - 300) months vs. 192 (39 - 480) months, P=0.02], a higher percentage of peripheral blood neutrophils (79.9%±12.5% vs. 68.1%±18.1%, P=0.01) and higher score of emphysema [2 (0 - 2) vs. 0 (0 - 1), P=0.02] than the asthma group. Conclusions There is no significant difference in clinical and radiological characteristics between ABPA patients without asthma and those with asthma. The diagnosis of ABPA should also be considered when patients with chronic pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchiectasis have aggravation of dyspnea, increase of eosinophils in peripheral blood and typical imaging features such as mucus attenuation.
Co-infection with severe influenza and bacterial is well known, but in recent years, more and more studies report that aspergillus have been identified as important pathogens, secondary only to bacteria in severe influenza. Influenza-associated aspergillus (IAA) brings a high death rate and heavy burden to our country. Therefore, early diagnosis and effective treatment are needed. In order to better understand IAA, this review summarizes the available literature on the association of IAA, including epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment.
Objective To retrospectively analyze the clinical features of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in intensive care unit (ICU), so as to improve the level of clinical diagnosis and treatment. Methods A total of 81 patients diagnosed as IPA from March, 2017 to March, 2022 in the ICU of The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China were selected as infection group. A total of 81 non-IPA patients with pulmonary infection and Aspergillus negative sputum culture were selected as the control group. The host factors, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Assessment Ⅱ score at admission, underlying diseases, clinical symptoms and signs, relevant laboratory test results, and lung CT findings were compared between the two groups. Univariate analysis and multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis were used to identify the risk factors for the occurrence of pulmonary aspergillosis in IPA patients in ICU. At the same time, the types of aspergillus in the IPA group and the outcomes of the two groups at 28 days after ICU admission were analyzed. Results Of the 81 IPA patients, 4 were proven diagnosed and 77 were putative diagnosed. IPA patients were mainly infected with Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus. Symptoms and signs such as fever, cough and expectoration, dyspnea and pulmonary rales occurred in both groups. The level of procalcitonin in IPA group was higher than that in non-IPA group, and the difference was statistically significant (P=0.016). The positive rate of serum galactomannan antigen test (GM test) in the IPA group was higher than that in the non-IPA group, and the differences was statistically significant (P=0.000). The incidence of pulmonary imaging cavities in IPA group was higher than that in non-IPA group, and the difference was statistically significant (P=0.022). Univariate analysis showed that central venous catheterization, septic shock, complete parenteral nutrition, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and immunosuppression were risk factors for IPA (P<0.05); Multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis showed that complete parenteral nutrition, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and immunosuppression were independent risk factors for IPA (P<0.05). The 28-day fatality rate in IPA group was higher than that in non-IPA group (55.6% vs. 34.6%, P=0.007). Conclusions IPA patients have no specific clinical symptoms and signs, and are mainly infected with Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus; GM test has guiding significance for the diagnosis of IPA. Serum GM test and pulmonary imaging have cavity findings that are helpful for the diagnosis of IPA. Patients with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunosuppression, or complete parenteral nutrition need to be on high alert for the possibility of IPA during ICU stay.
Objective To analyze the risk factors of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in patients with interstitial pneumonia. Methods The clinical data of 770 cases of interstitial pneumonia admitted between December 2010 and August 2015 were collected. Among them, 46 cases were combined with IPA and 724 cases were not ombined with IPA. The clinical data was analyzed to explore the risk factors of IPA in patients with interstitial pneumonia. Results Univariate analysis showed that in the aspects of age (t=3.348, P=0.001), serum albumin level (t=8.381, P < 001), broad-spectrum antibiotic used within 3 months (χ2=87.157, P < 001), long-term administration of glucocorticoid (χ2=57.462, P < 001), long-term administration of immunosuppressive agents (χ2=31.715, P < 001), imaging in UIP type (χ2=20.632, P < 001), diabetes mellitus (χ2=9.737, P=0.002) and heart failure (χ2=9.300, P=0.002), there were significant differences between two groups. After multivariate logistic regression analysis, broad-spectrum antibiotic used within 3 months (OR=4.773, P < 001), long-term administration of glucocorticoid (OR=9.195, P < 001), long-term administration of immunosuppressive agents (OR=2.662, P=0.046), imaging in UIP type (OR=5.725, P < 001), and diabetes mellitus (OR=3.847, P=0.003) were found to be the risk factors of IPA in patients with interstitial pneumonia. Serum albumin level was negatively correlated with the occurrence of IPA in patients with interstitial pneumonia. Conclusions Various factors contribute to the occurrence of IPA in patients with interstitial pneumonia. Miscellaneous appropriate measures should be taken to reduce the incidence of IPA.
Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of inhaled amphotericin B ( AmB) in prophylaxis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis ( IPA) in both animal studies and clinical researches. Methods MEDLINE, ISI, EMBASE and Wanfang Periodical Databases were searched until march 2011 for case-control study on the efficacy and safety of inhaled AmB in prophylaxis of IPA. The articles were evaluated according to inclusion criteria. Poor-quality studies were excluded, and RevMan 4. 22 sofeware was applied for investigating the heterogeneity among individual studies and calculating the pooled odds ratio ( OR) and 95% confidence interval ( CI) . Results Five animal studies with a total of 626 animals were included. The overall survival rate of the immunosuppressed animals with pulmonary aspergillosis treated with nebulized AmB was increased ( 38.3% vs. 9.7% , OR=13.93, 95% CI 7.46 ～26.01, Plt;0. 000 01) . Six clinical trials including 1354 patients were considered. Our meta-analysis showed that inhaled AmB could significantly reduce the incidence rate of IPA ( 2.6% vs. 9.2% , OR=0.27, 95% CI 0.16 ～0.46, P lt;0. 000 01) , but had no definite benefit on mortality. Four studies evaluated the potential side effects of nebulized AmB and showed that there were no significant adverse events. Conclusions Empirical inhaled AmB is associated with a lower rate of IPA but no significant