Abstract
Aspergillus is a fungal genus causing deep mycosis. We isolated 344 strains (320 cases) of Aspergillus species from clinical specimens obtained from the Nagaoka Red Cross Hospital between 2000 and 2011. We evaluated the species, isolation frequency, underlying diseases, and relevance of microscopic and serologic tests. We isolated 126 strains of Aspergillus niger (36.6%), 113 strains of A. fumigatus (32.8%), 53 strains of A. terreus (15.4%), 22 strains of A. flavus (6.4%), and 30 strains of other Aspergillus species (8.7%). Interestingly, we found that A. fumigatus accounted for 46.0% of respiratory specimens, whereas A. niger accounted for 48.3% of otolaryngology specimens. Recently, the rates of isolation of A. fumigatus and A. niger from respiratory samples have been demonstrated to have increased. Many patients in whom Aspergillus species were isolated from the respiratory tract had respiratory disease as the underlying disease. The clinical significance of the isolation of Aspergillus species from clinical samples should be determined on the basis of the underlying disease and clinical findings, including those from chest images and serologic tests. The emergence of resistant Aspergillus strains and the differences in drug sensitivity between species have also been reported, indicating that continuous attention to this issue will be necessary in the future.
