Aspergillosis, susceptibility to

Aspergillus species are ubiquitous in nature and cause a wide spectrum of diseases, including saprophytic colonization of existing cavities (aspergilloma), allergic asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, and disseminated disease associated with high mortality rates in patients with hematologic malignancies and recipients of solid organs and stem cell transplantations. Immunocompetent and nonatopic individuals are relatively resistant to infection, and disease occurs in the setting of host damage. Association of persistent inflammation with intractable infection is common in nonneutropenic patients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, as well as in allergic fungal diseases. The pathophysiology underlying Aspergillus infection highlights the bipolar nature of the inflammatory process in infection, in which early inflammation prevents or limits infection, but an uncontrolled response may oppose disease eradication (summary by Cunha et al., 2010). For information on familial occurrence of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, see 103920. [from OMIM]