ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze the clinical manifestations of pulmonary fungal disease in patients with different pathogen infection and different immune states. Methods A retrospective analysis was carried out with the clinical data of 78 patients with pulmonary fungal disease who were treated in Fujian Provincial Hospital from June 2012 to June 2016. Results The identified pathogens included Cryptococcus (78.2％, 61/78), Aspergillus(17.9％, 14/78), Talaromyces marneffei, Mucor, and Trichosporon asahii (one each). Cryptococcus was mostly found in healthy individuals without underlying disease and Aspergillus largely infected those with underlying disease. Diabetes mellitus was the most common underlying disease. Pulmonary fungal infection was confirmed by pneumonectomy (41.0％, 32/78), CT-guided percutaneous transthoracic biopsy (43.6％, 34/78), transbronchial lung biopsy (14.1％, 11/78), or blood culture (1.3％, 1/78). Pulmonary cryptococcosis was often asymptomatic (47.5％, 29/61). Hemoptysis was only found in the patients with underlying disease. The patients with pulmonary aspergillosis showed higher prevalence of hemoptysis (57.1％, 8/14) than the patients with other pulmonary fungal diseases. Bronchoscopy usually gave negative finding in case of pulmonary cryptococcosis (77.8％, 14/18). Inflammatory exudation was the primary finding of pulmonary aspergillosis (6/10). Intraluminal necrosis and neoplasia were only found in the aspergillosis patients with underlying disease. The primary imaging findings in pulmonary cryptococcosis was nodule or mass (78.7％, 48/61). Halo sign and crescent sign were rarely found in pulmonary aspergillosis. Of the 78 patients, 45 (57.7％) patients received pharmacological therapy alone, 15 (19.2％) surgical treatment alone, and 18 (23.1％) received drugs in combination with surgery. Six patients died, 25 lost to follow-up, and 47 with stable disease. Conclusions The clinical characteristics of pulmonary fungal disease vary with the pathogen and the immune states of patients. Clinical symptoms and immune status of patients should be taken into account when making diagnosis of pulmonary fungal disease for the purpose to speculate the probable fungal pathogen and choose the most appropriate diagnostic tool.