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Triple pulmonary infection in a severely immunocompromised AIDS patient: a case report

The authors report a case of a 38-year-old male patient who works as a driver, HIV positive for eight years and with no follow up since diagnosis presenting with productive cough with grayish secretion and intermittent attacks of dyspnea two weeks before hospital admission. He also reported two previous episodes of treated pulmonary tuberculosis (in 1983 and 2001). Chest X-ray showed nodular hypolucent areas and air bronchograms bilaterally. Computed tomography of the chest revealed many unspecific findings, including scattered areas of consolidation, cavitations, bronchial dilatation, ground glass opacities, interstitial thickening and air bronchograms. The bronchoalveolar lavage showed a number of hyphaes with rare bifurcated septa suggestive of Aspergillus sp. Cultures of Nocardia sp. and Mycobacterium tuberculosis were positive. Therefore, treatment with amphotericin B, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and antiretroviral was started. The patient was discharged twenty days later without pulmonary symptoms. Fifteen days later, the patient returned to the hospital with diarrhea, fever, dysphagia and significant weight loss. The patient died five days later due to staphylococci sepsis.

AIDS; Tuberculosis; Aspergillosis; Nocardiosis; Radiology


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