Post tubercular bronchiectasis with aspergilloma
Ashwin Karnan
Corresponding author: Ashwin Karnan, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research, Sawangi (Meghe), Wardha, Maharashtra, India
Received: 04 May 2024 - Accepted: 02 Jun 2024 - Published: 26 Jun 2024
Domain: Infectious disease,Internal medicine,Pulmonology
Keywords: Fungus, cough, breathlessness
©Ashwin Karnan et al. Pan African Medical Journal (ISSN: 1937-8688). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Ashwin Karnan et al. Post tubercular bronchiectasis with aspergilloma. Pan African Medical Journal. 2024;48:68. [doi: 10.11604/pamj.2024.48.68.43859]
Available online at: https://www.panafrican-med-journal.com//content/article/48/68/full
Post tubercular bronchiectasis with aspergilloma
&Corresponding author
A 48-year-old diabetic male, presented to the outpatient department with complaints of fever, breathlessness on exertion, and cough with mucopurulent expectoration for the past 15 days. The patient gave a history of pulmonary tuberculosis 4 years back for which he took antitubercular therapy for 6 months. CT thorax showed a cavity with a hypodense lesion and cystic bronchiectatic changes in the left lower lobe. Echocardiography showed a dilated right ventricle with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Sputum for acid-fast bacilli was negative, serum IgG antibody for Aspergillus was raised and Bronchoalveolar lavage galactomannan was positive confirming the diagnosis of Aspergilloma. The patient was treated with Voriconazole, phosphodiesterase-5-inhibitor, oral corticosteroids, oral hypoglycemic agents, and diuretics. The patient improved symptomatically and is currently on follow-up. Aspergillus colonization usually occurs in a previously existing lung cavity. Aspergilloma may be difficult to diagnose due to its complexity. It has around 38% mortality rate. Hemoptysis is the dreaded complication requiring bronchial artery embolization.
Figure 1: A) CT of the thorax with yellow arrow showing cavity with hypodense content depicting air crescent sign; B) CT of the thorax with yellow arrow showing cystic bronchiectasis in the left lower lobe