Clinical and Epidemiological Profile of Patients with Suspected Pulmonary Aspergillosis of a Hospital on Rio Grande do Sulstate, Brazil

Abstract

Background and objectives: Pulmonary aspergillosis consists in a serious fungal infection and its etiological agent is the fungi of the genus Aspergillus.The infection mainly affects immunocompromised individuals and has a high mortality rate among them, related to the difficult diagnosis and treatment. Due to the difficulty to obtain positive results for Aspergillus in traditional methods of laboratory culture, it becomes necessary to evaluate alternative techniques for the detection of this microorganism. One of the advances in the diagnosis of aspergillosis is the galactomannan test, which detects this fungal cellular membrane polysaccharide that is released in the host bloodstream during infection. Methods: This study consisted of an analysis of 24 hospitalized patients in the period of 2012 to 2014, in a tertiary hospital of the Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. For epidemiological analysis, the following data about the patients were collected: age, sex, hospitalization unit, underlying disorders, clinical and radiological data, antimicrobial use and results of the galactomannan test. Results: Based on the analyzed results, 10 patients (41.6%) showed positive results in the galactomannan test. The patients have prolonged neutropenia mainly as a result of hematologic malignancies. A persistent fever despite the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics was the main clinical sign associated with suspected invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. Conclusion: This study corroborates with previous studies and reinforces the idea of the need for early detection of aspergillosis. KEYWORDS: Aspergillosis. Diagnosis Differential. Neutropenia.