A 46--year-old woman with chronic sinusitis, pulmonary nodules, and hemoptysis

Article Abstract:

A women who coughed up blood on a regular basis was found to have a fungal lung infection that caused an allergic reaction in her lungs. Analysis of a lung biopsy specimen showed that she was infected with a fungus called Aspergillus fumigatus.

Aspergillosis

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A 68-year-old man with diffuse, patchy pulmonary infiltrates

Article Abstract:

A 68-year-old man from Puerto Rico was admitted to the hospital three months after receiving a corneal transplant. He had a dry cough, increasing difficulty with breathing, and abnormal findings on his lung X-rays. The patient did not improve on antibiotic therapy, and a computed tomographic (CT) scan showed disease in the lungs. These symptoms could be due to a variety of causes, including dust inhalation diseases, allergic reaction, inhalation of toxins, drug reactions, infectious disorders, complications from heart disease, tumors, and a number of lung diseases of unknown cause. Corneal transplant can transmit some diseases, including rabies, hepatitis B, Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease (a viral disease of the brain), and theoretically, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and cytomegalovirus (a herpes-type virus). Steroid therapy was tapered because, in the case of infection, it has the potential to cause dissemination, sepsis, and death. The man was diagnosed with organizing bronchiolitis (inflammation of the bronchioles, small air ducts within the lung) with adjacent pneumonia, which responded to treatment with prednisone, a steroid. High doses of steroids were given for three months, and treatment continued for a total of seven months, after which the problem did not recur. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Respiratory tract infections

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A 35-year-old woman with obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic changes on CT scans of the chest

Article Abstract:

A 35-year-old woman was admitted to a hospital after several months of vomiting, nausea, weight loss, and increased sputum production. She was a long-time cigarette smoker. CT imaging of her chest showed a number of small cysts in her lungs, but other physiologic test results were normal. The use of asthma medication to reduce airway constriction did not improve her airflow obstruction. A biopsy of her lung revealed bronchiolar inflammation, scarring, brown pigmentation, and smooth muscle growth consistent with respiratory bronchiolitis from smoking.

Health aspects, Smoking, Airway obstruction (Medicine), Airway obstruction

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