title: Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis after solid organ transplantation: diagnosis and treatment based on 28 years of transplantation experience.
abstract: Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is a serious and lethal complication among organ transplant recipients. This report described the clinical manifestations and treatment of IPA over a 28-year period. From January 1979 to December 2007, 3215 organ transplant patients (2954 kidney and 261 liver recipients) were enrolled in the study. Nine patients developed IPA (7 kidney and 2 liver recipients), yielding an incidence of 0.003% (9/3215). Five IPA patients (55.6%) were diagnosed by transbronchial lung biopsy or autopsy, and 3 (33.3%) by sputum culture study. One patient was diagnosed through clinical manifestations and observations of IPA characteristics on chest X ray. We used amphotericin B (n = 4; 44.4%), voriconazole (n = 2; 22.2%), or fluconazole (n = 1; 11.1%) as the primary antifungal agents, but 2 patients could not receive antifungal agents due to rapid disease progression and sequential mortality. This study showed a high mortality rate among IPA patients (55.6%; 5/9). Only patients who received early antifungal agent thereby after a prompt diagnosis recovered from IPA. This survival advantage warrants careful monitoring for invasive fungal infections after organ transplantation with immediate administration of antifungal agents or surgical intervention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and The Research Institute for Transplantation, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Joo
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: S I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018450:Disease Progression; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000401:mortality; D055732:Pulmonary Aspergillosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D012086:Reoperation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D017741:Survivors
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents