Outbreak of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis among patients hospitalized in a bone marrow transplant ward: tomographic findings.

Objective: To evaluate the main aspects on CT scans of six patients hospitalized in a bone marrow transplant ward, diagnosed with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA), during an in-hospital outbreak of the disease.

Methods: We reviewed 10 chest CT scans of six neutropenic or immunocompromised patients hospitalized in the hematology and bone marrow transplant ward of the Hospital São Paulo, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, who were diagnosed with IPA between April of 2007 and October of 2007. The diagnosis of IPA was confirmed by anatomopathological findings (in 2 cases), culture (in 3 cases) or appropriate treatment response (in 1 case).

Results: We evaluated the CT scans of three male and three female patients, ranging from 22 to 58 years of age. The most common tomographic findings were nodules (5/6 cases) and areas of consolidation (2/6 cases). The nodules were more often multiple (3/5 cases), with irregular contours (4/5 cases) and accompanied by the halo sign (3/5 cases). One case presented multiple, centrally distributed areas of consolidation, and another presented an isolated, peripheral area of consolidation. Areas of ground-glass attenuation and septal thickening were found in three and two patients, respectively. Bilateral pleural effusion occurred in three cases.

Conclusions: Consolidation, nodules, septal thickening, pleural effusion and ground-glass opacities were the principal tomographic findings in the six patients hospitalized in the above mentioned ward during the IPA outbreak. The nodules were often (in 67% of the cases) accompanied by the halo sign, a classically described finding in patients with IPA.