Pulmonary histoplasmosis in a immunocompetent patient: A case report and literature review

In the present study, the case of a 54-year-old male patient diagnosed with pulmonary histoplasmosis is reported, with the aim to increase the understanding of the disease characteristics and thereby facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary histoplasmosis. Clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment and clinical outcomes of the present case of pulmonary histoplasmosis were described. In addition, 76 histoplasmosis patients with complete clinical data were reviewed by searching the literature for relevant studies published during 1990 and 2015. The disease was mainly manifested as cough in the present case, while imaging examination detected a lump shadow in the right lung, accompanied by exudative lesions. Initially, the patient was suspected to have bacterial pneumonia, but subsequently the diagnosis of pulmonary histoplasmosis was confirmed by lung biopsy. The symptoms were alleviated following itraconazole treatment. The patient was physically stable and had no recurrence during the subsequent follow-up period. In conclusion, pulmonary histoplasmosis is characterized by non-specific clinical and imaging manifestations, and lung tissue biopsy or respiratory pathogen culture are regarded as the diagnostic gold standards. Individualized antifungal medication should be administered based upon the patients' situation in terms of dosage and duration.