A patient with ankylosing spondylitis who presented with chronic necrotising aspergillosis: report on one case and review of the literature.

ABSTRACT

Upper lobe fibrobullous disease is a well-known finding in advanced stages of ankylosing spondylitis (AS). In this report, we present a 57-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with a right apical cavitary lesion after coming to us with the complaint of haemoptysis. The patient underwent upper lobe segmentectomy and an aspergilloma was detected. Histologic findings were in favour of necrotising Aspergillus pneumonia. It was interesting that the patient had not been diagnosed with AS before and presented initially with chronic necrotising Aspergillus pneumonia. In the literature, there are recently published series of pulmonary high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) in AS which claim that parenchymal abnormalities are quite frequent. Although the clinical significance of these abnormalities is not known with certainty, it has been reported that they might be seen even in early-stage patients. It is suggested that the pulmonary involvement in AS might be affected by mechanical factors related to limitation of motion of the thoracic cage and also by parenchymal inflammation. Here, we review the series of pulmonary HRCT in AS patients.