Jornal de Patologia Clínica e Experimental

Abstrato

Aspergillosis of Gastrointestinal Tract Mimicking Malignancy: A Case Report

Mishra P, Gupts G, Mishra S and Srinivas V

A variety of infectious diseases can have clinical, radiological and histopathological findings that mimic various malignancies. We report a case of a 53 year old immunocompetent man admitted initially as a case of perforation peritonitis with strong clinical suspicion of a gastric malignancy. Histologically, the biopsy from the stomach perforation site showed necrotic gastric wall with scattered atypical cells in muscularis. Initially suspected to be neoplastic, these cells could not be characterized definitively by an immunohistochemistry panel. However, special stains for fungi done on account of necrosis, demonstrated presence of numerous fungal hyphae of Aspergillus in the gastric ulcer slough. Systemic antifungal treatment was instituted after which the patient showed significant clinical improvement and was discharged from the hospital following an uneventful recovery. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first report of a case of Aspergillus infection mimicking gastric malignancy in a non-immunocompromised individual from India.