Imaging findings of pulmonary blastomycosis in pediatric patients

• Published in: Pediatric radiology Vol. 52; no. 10; pp. 1974 - 1984
• Main Authors: Rozovsky, Katya, Moffatt, Hayley
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-09-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Blastomycosis; Familiarity; Fungal infections; Imaging; Inhalation; Medical imaging; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Neuroradiology; Nuclear Medicine; Oncology; Pediatrics; Pleural effusion; Pneumonia; Population; Radiology; Respiration; Spores; Thoracic Imaging; Tomography; Ultrasound; Radiography; Chest; Blastomycosis; Computed tomography; Extrapulmonary; Lungs; Children; Fungal infection
• ISSN: 0301-0449; 1432-1998
• DOI: 10.1007/s00247-022-05402-x

Blastomycosis is caused by
Blastomyces dermatitidis
, a thermally dimorphic fungus that lives in the form of spores in the soil in North America. The main mode of transmission is through the inhalation of these spores. Despite the importance of knowing the imaging characteristics of blastomycosis given the suggested high rates of dissemination in symptomatic children, a paucity of literature focuses on the imaging patterns of blastomycosis in the pediatric population. In this review, we describe the main imaging findings of pediatric pulmonary blastomycosis and briefly review extrapulmonary manifestations of the disease. Familiarity with these imaging manifestations is important to aid in rapid diagnosis.