Pulmonary involvement in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is common and can be due to the disease itself as well as to the therapies used to treat it. The purpose of this study was to disclose the pulmonary involvement in early RA patients not more than 2 years disease duration using the computed tomography (CT) as well as the pulmonary function tests as ways of pulmonary involvement assessment. Forty patients aged 37.6 ± 10.3 with early rheumatoid arthritis not more than 2 years of disease duration were recruited for the study. All patients were assessed clinically for their RA with DAS28, which was utilized for disease activity determination. Ten percent of our patients were found to be clinically involved by interstitial lung disease (ILD), where 27% have abnormal HRCT finding and 32.5% with abnormal PFT. Predilection for clinically manifest ILD was evident in active RA patients with high DAS28 score, seropositive RA patients, and in patients receiving steroids and anti-TNFα therapy. ILD occurs early in the course of RA, with more predilection for clinically active RA disease.

Summary. Fusarium is a newly emerging fungal pathogen associated with signi®cant morbidity and mortality in the immunocompromised host. We have reviewed our hospital's experience with Fusarium between 1985 and 1995. Fusarium species were isolated from 22 specimens, representing 11 patients. Cases were not clustered by time period. The median age of the patients was 36´5 years (range 17±69 years). The sources of the organism were 12 skin lesions from eight patients, seven blood cultures from two patients and one specimen each from a Hickman catheter tip, nail clippings and a bronchoalveolar lavage. Seven of the patients had chemotherapy-induced neutropenia when the Fusarium was isolated. Five of them developed invasive fusarosis during acute leukaemia induction treatment. They remained neutropenic, and none survived. The other two patients recovered from neutropenia and were treated successfully for this infection. The remaining four patients were not neutropenic or immunocompromised. Three grew Fusarium from skin or nail clippings and one from bronchial alveolar lavage (BAL). There was no evidence of invasive disease in any of the four. None of them received antifungal therapy, and they were all alive at last follow-up. We conclude that Fusarium is a newly emerging infection in neutropenic patients. A high index of suspicion, especially for skin lesions, will help in early diagnosis before systemic and visceral dissemination. Excision of the initial focus of infection and antifungal therapy, aided by speedy neutrophil recovery, are likely to protect patients threatened with these fatal infections. Fusarium isolated from non-neutropenic, nonimmunosuppressed patients is not signi®cant and does not merit systemic antifungal treatment.