Histoplasmose residual dos pulmöes e linfonodos broncopulmonares em necropsias realizadas em uberaba, MG / Residual histoplasmosis of lung and bronco-pulmonary lymphnodi in necropsies done in Uberaba, MG

ABSTRACT

Lungs and broncho-pulmonary lymph nodes were studied from 127 sequential adult autopsies done in Uberaba, MG, Brazil through the years 1992 and 1993. Calcified lung nodules and/or calcified lymph nodes were found in 39 (30.7 per cent) cases. For 27 (69.2 per cent) out of those 39 autopsies, fungi morphologically compatible with Histoplasma capsulatum were found within those calcified structures. Fite-Faraco stain for acid-fast bacilli was negative for all cases. It is concluded that the majority of calcified pulmonary nodes and calcified regional lymph nodes found at autopsies in Uberaba are related to infection with H. capsulatum. These findings raise the possibility for this fungal disease to be endemic in Uberaba. Such information might be relevant to the diagnosis of this systemic mycosis.