A case of disseminated aspergillosis with smoldering adult T-cell leukemia

The patient was 39-year-old male who had been administrated 20 mg of prednisolone for control of chronic eosinophilic pneumonia. He consulted the hospital with fever, headache and gait disturbance. The laboratory data of peripheral blood revealed a smoldering adult T cell leukemia. Computed tomogram of the chest and MRI of the brain revealed a mass in the right middle lobe of the lung and a brain abscess in the left hemisphere respectively. Biopsied specimens from the lung and brain abscess showed an Aspergillus like fungus. In spite of placement of an Ommaya reservoir for administration of AMPH-B and control of intracranial pressure, he died. During the course, specific antigen and specific gene were not detected in the peripheral blood, and no viable organism was isolated from the specimens. Post mortem examination revealed multiple nodular lesions in the lung, parietal pleura, liver, heart and kidney. After autopsy, disseminated aspergillosis was confirmed through a tissue examination using nested PCR for Aspergillus DNA. In this case, we think that viable fungi could endure in the tissue while circulating Aspergillus markers remained undetectable.