Background and purpose: Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is usually an acute life-threatening infection in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and in organ transplant recipients receiving immunosuppressive therapy. In some immunocompetent patients, IPA has a chronic and indolent clinical course. We compared the clinical patterns among IPA patients who had received recent intensive immunosuppressive therapy (RIIT) and those who had not (N-RIIT).
Methods: We reviewed the medical records of patients with a diagnosis of IPA made between 1992 and 1999. RIIT was defined as chemotherapy or high-dose corticosteroid therapy (at least 500 mg/d methylprednisolone, or equivalent, for at least 3 d) within 2 weeks before the onset of symptoms. RIIT patients were divided into those with and without malignancy. We compared clinical characteristics including age, sex, chest image patterns, diagnostic methods, culture results, treatment conditions, mortality, and recurrence rate in IPA patients: RIIT versus N-RIIT, and RIIT with and without malignancy.
Results: A total of 24 patients with IPA, 17 patients who had received RIIT and seven patients who had not (N-RIIT), were included. In the RIIT group, 11 patients had malignancy and six did not. No significant differences in gender, chest image patterns, diagnostic methods, and culture results were found between the RIIT and N-RIIT groups. The N-RIIT group was older and was treated significantly later after the onset of symptoms than the RIIT group (mean +/- standard deviation, SD, 89.43 +/- 129.47 vs 9.70 +/- 9.33 d, p = 0.018). Only one of the seven N-RIIT patients died, while nine of the 17 RIIT patients died (p = 0.08). Among the RIIT patients, five of the six without malignancy died, while four of the 11 patients with malignancy died. IPA recurred in seven of the eight RIIT patients, all of whom had malignancy, but in none of the six N-RIIT patients during a similar follow-up period (mean +/- SD, 16.3 +/- 18.9 vs 27.0 +/- 54.5 mo, p = 0.505).
Conclusions: No differences were noted in image and culture studies between RIIT and N-RIIT IPA patients. RIIT IPA patients had acute and fulminant clinical courses, especially patients without malignancy, even though they received treatment with a mean duration of about 10 days starting from the onset of symptoms. All patients with malignancy undergoing further chemotherapy had recurrence of IPA. N-RIIT IPA patients had chronic clinical courses, a trend of lower mortality rate even with delayed diagnosis, and no recurrence.