Fulminant Disseminated Pulmonary Adiaspiromycosis in Humans

Abstract

A case of fulminant disseminated pulmonary adiaspiromycosis is reported. The patient, a 35-year-old black male farm worker, presented with a four-week history of generalized weakness, unproductive cough, evening fever, and a weight loss of 8 kg. He died 12 days after hospitalization of respiratory failure due to granulomatous lung disease. The clinical and radiographic findings were indistinguishable from those of miliary tuberculosis. Microscopic examination of material obtained at autopsy revealed the large fungus characteristic of adiaspiromycosis in the center of suppurative granulomas throughout the lungs. This is believed to be the first fatal case of pulmonary adiaspiromycosis reported in humans, and it may have been occupationally acquired.