Isolated pulmonary cysticercosis is extremely rare manifestation of a rather common disease which is distributed worldwide. Most common sites which provide perfect nourishment for the growth of cysticercosis are muscle and brain followed by eye. Pulmonary involvement in cysticercosis is very rare and if at all present, then ill-defined nodular shadows distributed throughout the lung is the usual radiological presentation. No case of cysticercosis presenting as lung cavity with pleural effusion has been reported so far in literature. We came across a rarest presentation of cysticercosis as cavity in the lung with effusion. After nullifying all the differential diagnosis of cavitary lung lesions, a diagnosis of pulmonary cysticercosis was made by histopathological examination of the lung cavity aspirate and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for cysticercosis. Case was successfully treated with albendazole (15mg/kg) with steroid cover.

Introduction:The optimal dose, duration, and efficacy of itraconazole in Indian patients of pulmonary aspergilloma (PA) are not clearly defined. Therefore, a study was carried out, to resolve these issues in diagnosed cases of PA complicating old treated patients of pulmonary tuberculosis.Materials and Methods:The study patients randomly received itraconazole either in a fixed dose schedule of 200 mg (group I), 200 mg twice daily (group II) or a variable dose schedule (group III), for 12 months. All the patients were followed up for the entire duration of the study for clinical, radiological, and immunological response. The side effects were recorded as and when reported by the patients and managed symptomatically.Results:A total of 60 patients were enrolled, 20, in each group. There were no intergroup differences with regard to age, sex, body weight, smoking status, alcohol intake, symptoms, Potassium hydroxide (KOH) mount, fungal culture, pattern of radiological lesions or anti-aspergillus antibodies (anti-Asp-Ab) titers. The radiological response was poor in group I patients, as compared to the other groups, at two months (P < 0.05). The dose of itraconazole was increased in five of the patients in group I due to poor response. A higher number of group II patients suffered side effects and the dose of itraconazole had to be decreased in three of these patients, but none of the patients on a variable dose schedule required a change in dose schedule.Conclusion:Thus, a weight-based variable dose schedule of itraconazole was found to be a more effective and safer modality in the management of PA than a fixed dose schedule.

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||ABSTRACT Oxygen therapy has long become a cornerstone in the treatment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and other hypoxemic and hypercapnic chronic respiratory diseases. Studies have clearly shown benefits in terms of survival, improvement in dyspnea, exercise tolerance, and other associated conditions like pulmonary hypertension that arise due to the disease. However, guidelines regarding prescription of oxygen and to make choice of the delivery devices are not explicit. Furthermore, there still prevails a large unawareness and confusion among physicians to properly prescribe and advise patients about the use of oxygen for home therapy customized as per individual needs. The availability of several new oxygen delivery and conservation devices and techniques over the past few decades has provided a wide spectrum of options to be used in combinations or alone. This article retrospectively tries to review the studies, trials, and researches published so far in this field to give a broad idea based on consistent scientific evidence to help physicians frame their set of guidelines for prescribing long-term oxygen therapy.

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