Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is a rare complication in patients with either mild immunosuppression or various pulmonary diseases. Diagnosis and therapy are challenging because of unspecific symptoms like productive cough, weight loss, fever and haemoptysis. Differential diagnoses are manifold, and CPA is characterized by findings in chest CT and serologic proof of precipitins. Surgery is only recommended for simple aspergillomas. Recurrent prolonged courses of antifungal treatment yield satisfactory short-term outcome, but long-term prognosis is uncertain. We provide an overview of the literature and present four cases to illustrate disease diversity.
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.