Concurrent aspergillosis and cystic pulmonary metastases in a patient with tongue squamous cell carcinoma.

Pulmonary Aspergillus infection may have a variety of manifestations depending on the patients' immunity status and pre-existing lung conditions. Radiographically, aspergilloma, which is usually associated with noninvasive Aspergillus fumigatus conidia, may feature a characteristic mass in a cavity commonly located in the upper lobes of the lung. It is typically encountered upon pre-existing lung damage. Here we report Aspergillus growing in a pulmonary metastatic cavity in a 47-year-old male worker with a history of tongue cancer after a radical operation with neck dissection and concurrent chemotherapy in 2014. Chest radiography and computed tomography showed a cavitary lesion with a ball-in-hole lesion in the right upper lobe (RUL) and two cystic lesions within the bilateral upper lung field. Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial biopsy (EBUS-TBB) from the RUL anterior segmental bronchus (RB3) revealed the presence of Aspergillus conidia and squamous cell carcinoma. Wedge resection of the cystic lesion within the left upper lobe confirmed the diagnosis of metastatic squamous cell carcinoma. This is a rare case of aspergillosis within cavities of pulmonary metastases in a patient who was diagnosed with tongue squamous cell carcinoma. The conclusive distinction between neoplasm and fungal infection is difficult to achieve by radiography, and a pathological biopsy by EBUS-TBB is necessary to aid diagnosis. Clinicians should be aware of such an atypical presentation of metastases coexisting with Aspergillus infection.

Causality test of ambient fine particles and human influenza in Taiwan: Age group-specific disparity and geographic heterogeneity.

Influenza is a major global public health problem, with serious outcomes that can result in hospitalization or even death. We investigate the causal relationship between human influenza cases and air pollution, quantified by ambient fine particles <2.5µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5). A modified Granger causality test is proposed to ascertain age group-specific causal relationship between weekly influenza cases and weekly adjusted accumulative PM2.5 from 2009 to 2015 in 11 cities and counties in Taiwan. We examine the causal relationship based on posterior probabilities of the log-linear integer-valued GARCH (generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic) model with covariates, which enable us to handle characteristics of influenza data such as integer-value, lagged dependence, and over-dispersion. The resulting posterior probabilities show that the adult age group (25-64) and the elderly group in New Taipei in the north and cities in southwestern part of Taiwan are strongly affected by ambient fine particles. Moreover, the elderly group is clearly affected in all study sites. Globalization and economic growth have resulted in increased ambient air pollution (including PM2.5) and subsequently substantial public health concerns in the West Pacific region. Minimizing exposure to air pollutants is particularly important for the elderly and susceptible individuals with respiratory diseases.