National Aspergillosis Centre Seminar Series 2022

 

This year for World Aspergillosis Day the National Aspergillosis Centre held a series of talks from clinicians and patients about aspergillosis. The event was a resounding success (even with a few technical glitches), with 160 people attending across the day for the various talks.
 

Below are the recorded talks and PowerPoint presentations from the day.

During the talks, we offered the option to ask questions in the Zoom chat. If after you have watched the recorded video of the meeting you also wish to ask a question please contact us at NAC.Cares@mft.nhs.uk

 

 

How the National Aspergillosis Centre came to be Chris Harris, NAC Manager

Who gets aspergillosis? Caroline Baxter, NAC Clinical Lead

How do we detect aspergillosis? Lily Novak Frazer, MRCM (diagnostics)

How do we treat aspergillosis? Chris Kosmidis, NAC Consultant

 

Are antifungal drugs complicated to use? Fiona Lynch, Specialist Pharmacist

 

Helping patients live with aspergillosis Phil Langridge & Mairead Hughes,  Specialist Aspergillosis Physiotherapists & Jenny White, Aspergillosis Specialist Nurse

Patient Stories: Living with aspergillosis

A series of stories from four patients, in which they discuss diagnosis, impact and management. All our patient stories can be found here. 

MFIG research in Manchester Angela Brennan

MRC Centre for Medical Mycology, Aspergillosis Research, Elaine Bignell

 

European Lung Foundation Advocating for patients, involving patients in research across Europe

NAC CARES team 

 

Patient stories

Aspergillosis is a debilitating and lifelong condition and diagnosis is life-changing. Patient storytelling is an important tool in raising awareness. Not only do these stories help others with the condition feel like they are not alone, but they also empower patients and provide valuable insight into patient experience for clinicians and healthcare professionals.

The videos below tell the stories of four patients, each living with a different type of Aspergillosis.

 

Ian – Invasive Aspergillosis of the Central Nervous System (CNS)

You can find more information on Invasive CNS Aspergillosis here.

Alison – Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis (ABPA).

You can find more information on ABPA here. 

Mick – Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis (CPA).

You can find more information on CPA here. 

Gwynedd – Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis (CPA) Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis (ABPA)

 

Q&A

Q. Can SAFS turn into APBA.?

Severe Asthma with Fungal Sensitisation (SAFS) seems to be quite different to Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis (ABPA) in that SAFS patients do not suffer from mucoid impaction or bronchiectasis, and patients with ABPA do not have to have severe asthma.
Can some SAFS develop into ABPA? As yet we don’t have much evidence to decide one way or the other, but as SAFS is a relatively newly identified condition it may take more years to be sure, so we cannot completely rule it out.

 

Q. Do u get cases of TB & IA coinfection ?

I assume that you mean TB and Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis (CPA) as these two are quite closely linked? The two can co-exist and infect the same host – it was mentioned during one of the talks this afternoon.
IA (Invasive aspergillosis) is an infection of immunocompromised people who are usually people with severely compromised immune systems eg transplant recipients.

 

Q. May I know for molecular testing of azole resistance, what is the reference/target gene and what do you use as its positive strains?

ATCC since there are no breakpoint for anti fungal for ATCC

 

Q. Can ABPA “progress” and turn into CPA/IA? Being ABPA patient they also take blood test of my galactomannan levels.

Small numbers of Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis (ABPA) patients progress to form lung cavities (Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis). It is something we keep monitoring during regular clinic visits for people we think may be at risk.

 

Q. If Itraconazole has caused more peripheral Neuropathy….. how long after stopping Itraconazole will the symptoms reduce?

Most cases (>90%) resolve once itraconazole has been stopped for a month. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21685202/

 

Q. Letrozole interaction with antifungals

None noted – so we cannot rule out that there may be some but it hasn’t been reported – see https://antifungalinteractions.org/

 

Q. I am in the group of people mentioned by Dr Baxter that have no other respiratory conditions or other known allergies. My consultant suggested it may be genetic in causation. Is this likely? is there any research into this?

Assuming that you have ABPA as you mentioned allergies, there are a few genetic traits that have been identified with more to come.