Any one with experience of Aspergillus Niger

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Hello Everyone

Any one with experience of an Aspergillus infection?

Life is never dull with CLL. Wish we had other options to make it exciting!

My wife had low grade fever all of last week with increased cough and sputum.

we went to the lung specialist. He took an x ray and found a new spot on the lung.

Told us to wait and watch, she had already been on 10 days of antibiotic for pseudomonas in May so he said he didnt want to give unnecessary antibiotics.

He suggested sputum and and blood cultures be done and to come in to the hospital if the fever went up .

She had her monthly IvIg on Friday last and on Saturday developed high fever.

Paracetamol only worked for about 6 hours and by sunday it had gone up to 39 C so we went in to the hospital.

all cultures were negative for any bacteria., but he in any case started her off on Magnex IV keeping in mind the last pseudomonas infection.

Said the Tobramycin she was taking as a prophylactic nebuliser may be masking it.

Any way by monday the fever kept the same pattern and returned every 6 hours despite the antibiotic.

The lab phoned us and said that the sputum had grown Asperrgillus Niger , they also phoned the doctor to tell him so he came in and said one test does not necessarily mean it is correct, may be a contamination, but took her in for an immediate CT scan , which showed the spot in the lung to be well defined.

He said he didnt want to jump in with an antifungal yet and decided to escalate the IV to Meropenum , said if it is a bug then it will resolve with the Meropenum or then otherwise we will start antifungals.

The Meropenum dramatically brought down the fever by the 2nd dose.

This morning he came in and said that it does not necessarily mean there is no Aspergillus so we need to repeat the sputum tests to be sure.

He said the Aspergillus may not be the cause of the fever yet and the Meropenum may have acted on other bugs present but the Aspergillus may rear its head in a few days so we need to be sure whether the previous test was correct or just a contamination.

Apparently Aspergillus is present everywhere but creates major problems for people with leukemias and those with SCT.

Any one have any experience?

Inputs would be very welcome.

from DelhiWife diagnosed with CLL in 1997 at age 44,Fish del 13q, unmutated, Zap 70 positive2001 : Chlorambucil partial remmission2002 : RF 6 cycle . Acheived CR.

Relapsed 2004.Feb 2008 - Oct 2008 : RFCcycle 1,2 FC, cycle 4 to 6 RFC cycle 7 Rituximab , cycle 8 RituximabRelapsed March 2009 - lymph nodes in abdomen, axilla and neck .Diagnosis changed to Non Hodgekins Lymphoma - CLL / SLL

Previously it was only CLL.AIHA in May 2009, resolved with prednisolone .Remission after Ofatumumab 8 cycles of 2000 mg given 13th August to 8th October5th Nov 2009 Mini SCT at Royal Free in London under Prof Mackinnon, donor is sister.Post transplant 7 months 2 weeks doing well dispite the hiccups .

Wiating to get DLI next month.

Busy fighting off infections at the moment !