Clinical characteristics of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis

Background Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is an allergic pulmonary disease caused by a hypersensitivity reaction to Aspergillus colony in the airways. Due to the diversity of disease manifestations and physicians' incomplete knowledge of ABPA, patients with ABPA are often misdiagnosed and given poor prognosis. Objectives To investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment and prognosis status among patients with ABPA. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 75 patients diagnosed as ABPA in Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University between October 2008 and June 2018. Results Among 75 patients, 28% had asthma as the predisposing condition and 69% suffered from misdiagnosis before ABPA diagnosis was made, among which 21% were misdiagnosed as tuberculosis. About 34% of patients had eosinophil count below 500 cells/μL and 25% had total serum IgE level Conclusions This study demonstrates an unsatisfactory situation of diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of ABPA, including a high misdiagnosis rate, uncertainty in the diagnosis of ABPA, lack of standardization in treatment and relatively poor prognosis.