Patients Meeting - Rome 2010
The following international meeting was recorded especially for patients with aspergillus related problems - designed to provide a resource for patients and address some of their questions. Some talks are now also available as podcasts at the iTunes store - search for "aspergillus and aspergillosis podcasts"
Some health effects of mould exposure
A summary of the potential health impacts of living in a damp home: Video provided by US companies with a financial interest in remediating homes so some marketing of specific services is featured. The Aspergillus Website does not endorse these specific services and care should be taken when employing anyone to carry out this type of work on your home.
Interview with CPA patient RW on long term antifungal treatments
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A patient interview. This patient RW- with long term chronic pulmonary aspergillosis describes his experiences over 18 years during which he has taken various antifungal treatments. He remains well and currently takes itraconazole. A synopsis is shown below. This patient underwent a lung resection in 1991 for a suspect lesion in his lung, histology revealed inflammation and an area containing fungal hyphae consistent with a fungal ball. Resection appeared to cure the problem. However in 1992 he re-presented with a large new cavity near the site of the surgery and a probable fungal ball seen on X ray. A bronchoscopy sample grew aspergillus and his blood tests were positive for aspergillus precipitins. Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis was diagnosed. Antifungal treatment on itraconazole was started and much improvement was seen. During the next few years the patient tried voriconazole (as a trial drug) - on which he experienced a red facial rash; IV amphotericin - which improved his condition markedly. Itraconazole treatment was then restarted and the patient has been largely stable on this antifungal drug over the last 13 years. On the occasions he has stopped the drug - he has relapsed and it has taken some months before he was again stable. The patient is currently in good health (11/09). We would like to thank the patient for agreeing to share his experiences.
Interview with patient with an aspergilloma and chronic pulmonary aspergillosis who developed azole resistance. Patient MD.
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Video interview with patient with an aspergilloma and chronic pulmonary aspergillosis, diagnosed after coughing up blood who later developed azole resistance on voriconazole. Patient History This patient had severe kyphoscoliosis as a child with insertion of spinal rods in early adulthood. She is a life-long non-smoker. She first presented in 2001 with an irritating cough and several treatments with antibiotics failed to alleviate it. After 2 years the cough worsened and she developed a fever. She was investigated but results were inconclusive. She then coughed up large amounts of blood (haemoptysis) and had a very severe bleed which was treated with embolisation and oral tranexamic acid. She continued to cough and produce green sputum and lose weight. Aspergillus precipitin titre was high and she was initially diagnosed with chronic pulmonary aspergillosis with one cavity containing an aspergilloma. Treatment with itraconazole did not alleviate her symptoms (despite adequate blood levels) and she started voriconazole and considerable improvement was seen initially and she gained some weight. She continued voriconazole for 2 years. However her Aspergillus titre remained high and her cough continued. Further tests showed her trough plasma levels of voriconazole to be more than 0.5mg/L, however isolates revealed that her Aspergillus fumigatus was drug resistant to itraconazole, voriconazole and posaconazole. The patient has now commenced amphotericin B therapy. We thank the patient for kindly providing this interview.
Interview long-term ABPA patient who coughed up large sputum plugs
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Video Interview with long-term ABPA patient who coughed up large sputum plugs. This patient had several episodes of pneumonia and developed bronchiectasis after diagnosis for a collapsed left lung. She was treated with inhaled corticosteroids and bronchodilators and progressed well. She was later diagnosed with possible ABPA (aspergillus precipitins were negative), after producing a large sputum plug which was positive for aspergillus hyphae. Her main symptoms were severe coughing with production of clear sputum. In December 04 her coughing became very severe and she coughed badly for 7 months. Her treatment was modified to include itraconazole (400mg/day solution- she required a higher dose than normal as she was taking other medication which reduced it's absorption). 8 weeks later she started very severe bouts of coughing over 3 days - which produced a large number of small mucous plugs, finally a very large plug (resembling a piece of grey chewing gum) was coughed up. After this, the coughing subsided and the patient felt well and a chest X-ray at this time showed a significant improvement with clearing of shadows from the right lower lobe. Itraconazole levels have been reduced to 300mg per day and steroid intake reduced. The patient remained well in July 2007. We thank the patient for kindly providing this interview.
Interview with patient HM with asthma and ABPA who improved with nebulised amphotericin B
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Video interview with patient with childhood asthma and ABPA, who showed a marked improvement in her ABPA and asthma when she commenced nebulised Amphotericin B. Her medication was changed from itraconazole at this time to allow for her to try for pregnancy. Two types of nebuliser - VentStream and the Pari LC system are discussed in the interview. Her condition is still stable using inhaled amphotericin B. We thank the patient for kindly providing this interview
Interview with patient DW with childhood asthma and ABPA
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Video interview with this patient with childhood asthma and ABPA. After persistent chest infections and continuous steroids and a bad productive cough, Aspergillus was cultured from sputum in 2002. After successfully taking itraconazole, the patient developed peripheral neuropathy (tingling and loss of sensation) in the hands. After stopping itraconazole - persistent chest infections requiring antibiotics and prednisolone were common. The patient at this point had a high IgE level and positive RAST tests. Voriconazole was then prescribed - which has successfully treated the aspergillus infection - no steroids are required and the cough is greatly reduced with the patient feeling well. However an unfortunate side effect of voriconazole has been a photosensitive rash on any exposed skin. Despite using complete sunscreen - the rash continues. The patient is continuing to take voriconazole.
Patient describes his experience with 3 different types of antifungal drug
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Video interview with patient JW with childhood asthma and subsequent ABPA, describes his experience with 3 different azole types of antifungal drugs and who showed a marked improvement when taking posaconazole.
Catherine survived acute invasive aspergillosis
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Video interview with Catherine who, following a kidney transplant developed severe invasive aspergillosis, but was successfully treated with antifungal drugs. We thank the patient for kindly providing this interview and Pfizer for supporting the production of this video.
Jim Azeltine
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In the late 80's I developed a lung condition that would just not go away, every other day or so I would get this horrible lung irritation and something would be "fluttering" in my lungs when I would breathe. It cause my to practically cough my guts out trying to get rid of these little plugs. After a couple of months of this I finally convinced my primary care physician to send me to a specialist because she had no idea what it was and why it was not going away on its own.