Definition
Fungal infections of the pleura occur when fungal organisms enter the pleural space. Fungal organisms rarely cause pleural infections, and when they do, they are often seen in patients with malignancies (leukemias, lymphomas) who are immunosuppressed due to chemotherapy or in AIDS patients. They also may occur following lobectomy or pneumonectomy procedures.
In immunosuppressed patients, fungal pleural infections are often due to ubiquitous environmental fungi like Pneumocystis jiroveci. Fungal pleural infections may also be due to endemic regional fungi (e.g., Coccidioides immitis in the southwest desert regions of the United States, Histoplasmosis capsulatum in the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys).
Unlike bacterial infections of the pleura, which may spread to pleural effusions from parenchymal lung infections like pneumonia, fungal infections require breach of the pleura to enter the pleural space. Invasion of the pleural space may occur via rupture of a pulmonary...
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Hammar, S. P. (2009). Dail and hammar’s pulmonary pathology: Nonneoplastic lung disease (3rd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 1139–1167). Manchester: Springer. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=j-eYLc1BA3oC&printsec=frontcover&output=html_text.
Murali, R., Park, K., & Leslie, K. O. (2010). The pleura in health and disease. Seminars in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 31(6), 649–673.
Olivares-Torres, C. A., Morales-Gomez, J., & Castillo-Ortega, G. (2009). General thoracic surgery: Chapter 63 – tuberculous and fungal infections of the pleura (7th ed., pp. 789–797). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=bVEEHmpU-1wC&printsec=frontcover.
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Ruff, H. (2018). Fungal Infections, Pleural. In: Allen, T.C., Suster, S. (eds) Pathology of the Pleura and Mediastinum. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66796-6_361
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66796-6_361
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