The 62-year-old Japanese man pays attention to his health: He goes once a year for a health check at the doctor and has stopped some time ago with the Smoking. Now, however, it is bad. Since a month of a persistent cough that has plagued him. He gets short of breath and has a slight fever – the receipt for the Smoking at a younger age?
The symptoms bring him in the Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. At least a cause to exclude the physicians on site are The complaints of the man are not due to bacteria. The Patient had previously visited two other hospitals and prescribed antibiotics to get. However, his symptoms did not improve.
The Japanese Doctors to take the man stationary, the cause of his mystery symptoms are liable to follow. What is striking: The breathing of the man is quickened and his lungs crackle quietly when you Breathe. The medics take the man’s blood and test it. It is striking that his kidney values are elevated. This is a worrying finding, but at least a presumption seems to be confirmed: In the lungs or the bronchi, no Tumor grows.
Antibodies in the blood
The Doctors do a lung mirroring, the crackling noises to investigate. Notes on pathogens that have spread to the lungs, you will not find. Rinse the parts of the lung with an aqueous solution, investigate them and will find it: In the solution of a large amount of immune cells that indicate an allergic reaction swims. Also, find the Doctors in the blood of the man of antibodies against a certain mushroom: the RNA is asahii. Where was the man with the fungus in contact?
The response of the Patient himself: He told the Doctors, that the air conditioning in his apartment was not serviced for 15 years. In addition, the 62-Year-old reported that parts of the floor damp in his flat and rotten, because in the past rain water through the front door raft. Poorly maintained ventilation and a moist wet floor – this is a Paradise for fungi such as the last asahii. They multiply particularly strong in humid environments.
The apartment has made him sick
But how then to explain the poor kidney values? 15 days after submission of the husband, the Doctors remove a tissue sample from the kidneys and can associate the connection of both Complaints together. The man suffers from a so-called “IgA nephropathy”. The disease is caused by immune complexes, the restrict the kidneys are deposited and their function. The Complexes consist of molecules, and antibodies, and had formed probably due to the allergic inflammation of the lungs – the due to the yeast fungus.
The Doctors act quickly and give the man an anti-allergic drug, which reduces swelling and inflammation. A total of 21 days, the husband is treated in order. His symptoms and laboratory values improve significantly.
The Doctors recommend the man to his apartment to renovate. The air conditioning and the rotten floor to be replaced before the Patient is in the hospital leaves.
A total of 52 days, the 62-Year-old in the clinic spends before he can return to his apartment. He continues to take a low-dose anti-allergic agent. According to his Doctors, he is still symptom-free.
Source: BMJ Case Reports / medical journal