Medical image of the week: valley fever cavity with fungus ball

No abstract available. Article truncated at 150 words. A 72-year-old man was seen in 2010 because of hemoptysis. In 2004 a routine chest x-ray discovered a new pulmonary nodule (Figure 1, Figure 2A). Coccioidomycosis by complement fixation and IgM were negative but IgG was elevated at 0.203 (upper l...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Robbins RA
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Arizona Thoracic Society 2018-05-01
Series:Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.swjpcc.com/imaging/2018/5/16/medical-image-of-the-week-valley-fever-cavity-with-fungus-ba.html
Description
Summary:No abstract available. Article truncated at 150 words. A 72-year-old man was seen in 2010 because of hemoptysis. In 2004 a routine chest x-ray discovered a new pulmonary nodule (Figure 1, Figure 2A). Coccioidomycosis by complement fixation and IgM were negative but IgG was elevated at 0.203 (upper limit of normal 0.150). A transthoracic needle biopsy revealed a granuloma without malignancy and no growth of any organisms. He was followed because he was asymptomatic. He remained asymptomatic but developed a thin-walled cavity (Figure 2B). However, beginning in 2008 he developed a cough with occasional hemoptysis. His thoracic CT scan was repeated and was interpreted as showing findings consistent with a fungus ball (Figure 2C). He was treated with fluconazole for about 6 months but his hemoptysis persisted and therapy was switched to itraconazole. His hemoptysis persisted although it was somewhat improved. A repeat CT scan performed in 2010 (Figure 2D) continued to show the fungus ball. He was …
ISSN:2160-6773