BackgroundPulmonary aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms have various etiologies; however, the term Rasmussen's pseudoaneurysm refers specifically to a focal dilatation of a branch of the pulmonary artery into adjacent tuberculous cavity. The incidence of such tuberculosis related pulmonary vascular complication is extremely rare, hence, under recognized by many physicians. Management of pulmonary pseudoaneurysms is challenging as they present by life-threatening hemoptysis. Furthermore, contrary to the most causes of massive hemoptysis their bleeding is of pulmonary rather than bronchial artery origin. Prompt diagnosis and early interventions are needed as a very high mortality rate is associated with this illness.Case descriptionWe are reporting on a case of a young male who was presented to our hospital with recurrent episodes of massive hemoptysis and was diagnosed to have pulmonary tuberculosis. Despite being actively treated, his hemoptysis persisted. We describe in this case the role of different diagnostic modalities and the available therapeutic options.ConclusionRasmussen's psudoaneurysm is rare and potentially lethal pulmonary vascular complication of tuberculosis. It should be considered in the differential diagnosis of hemoptysis in patients known or suspected to have pulmonary tuberculosis. In such cases, multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) scanning is the investigation of choice to confirm the diagnosis and to localize the source of bleeding prior to the therapeutic interventions. Head to head comparison between interventional radiology procedures and surgery in treatment of pulmonary psudoaneurysms is lacking, thus, choice depend on the availability and local expertise.
Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is an allergic fungal infection that induces immunoglobulin E (IgE) production and eosinophils proliferation and affect mostly asthmatic and cystic fibrosis patients. The mainstay treatment for ABPA is systemic steroid and antifungal treatment which have increasing rates of treatment failure and side effects. Because of their mechanism of action in suppressing IgE or eosinophils, biologic drugs were expected to play an important role in the treatment of ABPA, however, their use in this issue was off label and lack the evidence. In this comprehensive and comparative review, 59 full text articles (228 patients) were selected. The outcomes were analyzed and the percentages of posttreatment change for each variable in each study were collected then the overall median percentages were calculated for each variable for each biologic drug. Comparative discussion of these outcomes was done in terms of clinical and functional response, reduction of exacerbation events, reduction of IgE level and eosinophils count, prevention of complications and patient's ability to reduce steroid dose or discontinue it.The review shows that the use of biologic drugs for treatment of ABPA is associated with a significant clinical and functional improvement and reduction of exacerbation rates up to 90%. There is more reduction in post-treatment IgE level with mepolizumab and marked reduction in posttreatment eosinophils count with benralizumab. Mepolizumab has the better steroid-sparing effect. Changing from one biologic drug to another with different target in case of treatment failure is advisable. More stronger studies and randomized control trials are needed to figure out the use of biologic drugs for ABPA treatment.
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