Targeted airway delivery of antifungals as prophylaxis against invasive aspergillosis may lead to high lung drug concentrations while avoiding toxicities associated with systemically administered agents. We evaluated the effectiveness of aerosolizing the intravenous formulation of voriconazole as prophylaxis against invasive pulmonary aspergillosis caused by Aspergillus fumigatus in an establis...

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis usually occurs in severely immunocompromised or neutropenic patients. Six patients with invasive aspergillosis are described whose only defence impairment was underlying lung disease and corticosteroid treatment. Cough, fever, and sputum production were the usual reasons for presentation and four patients developed the sepsis syndrome. Radiographic findings incl...

Affiliations: Dr. Silvestri is affiliated with Presidio Ospedaliero. Dr. van Saene is affiliated with the University of Liverpool. Dr. de la Cal is affiliated with University Hospital. Dr. De Gaudio is affiliated with the University of Florence. Financial/nonfinancial disclosures: The authors have reported to the ACCP that no significant conflicts of interest exist with any companies/organizati...

This study evaluated the pharmacological activity of PTX3, administered in combination with voriconazole, in a rat model of pulmonary aspergillosis. The data indicated additive therapeutic activities of these compounds, as demonstrated by the amelioration of respiratory function changes, reduction of lung fungal burden, and increased survival. Overall, we provide clear evidence that the combina...

We investigated the efficacy of posaconazole prophylaxis in preventing invasive aspergillosis due to azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus isolates. Using a neutropenic murine model of pulmonary infection, posaconazole prophylaxis was evaluated using three isogenic clinical isolates, with posaconazole MICs of 0.063 mg/liter (wild type), 0.5 mg/liter (F219I mutation), and 16 mg/liter. A fourth i...

Pulmonary aspergillosis is a well known entity occurring in immunocompetent persons. Cutaneous aspergillosis, on the other hand, has been described in cases of suppressed immunity. Recently, invasive aspergillosis has been reported in patients with subtle immune dysfunction such as those with critical illness and advanced cirrhosis. We report a case of scrotal aspergillosis in association with ...

Invasive aspergillosis has been mainly reported among immunocompromised patients during prolonged periods of neutropenia. Recently, however, non-neutropenic patients in the ICU population have shown an increasing risk profile for aspergillosis. Associations with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and corticosteroid therapy have been frequently documented in this cohort. Difficulties in achie...

A patient with leukemia who developed complete heart block after the diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis is reported. The patient had probable invasive pulmonary aspergillosis with a sudden tachypnea, dyspnea, fever, bilateral pulmonary infiltrates and acute respiratory insufficiency after chemotherapy. On the sixth day of antifungal therapy, she developed complete atrioventricular block. Comp...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical and radiographic features of pulmonary aspergillosis as they present in AIDS patients; in particular, to determine similarities and differences between Aspergillus infection in patients with AIDS vs those without AIDS. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Six new cases of confirmed or probable pulmonary aspergillosis were discovered during a search of hospital records. Thes...

at a cut-off value of 1.5. Cardiac functions were stable with absence of cardiac arrhythmia despite intermittent atrial fibrillation until the patient suddenly died from acute heart failure. The autopsy findings are shown in figure 1 . Prevalence rates of 4.5% of invasive aspergillosis after lung transplantation in non-cystic fibrosis patients have been reported. Mortality rates of invasive pul...