Chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis in an immunocompetent, obese 10-year-old boy

Chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis is a rare form of pulmonary aspergillosis. It is usually seen in middle-aged or elderly patients with underlying chronic lung disease or mild immunodeficiency, and has been only rarely encountered in children. Clinical presentation is variable and usually involves constitutional symptoms of several months' duration as well as respiratory symptoms. We present a previously well, immunocompetent, obese 10-year-old boy with cough and mild hemoptysis lasting for a couple of days and a round pulmonary infiltrate on chest radiograph. Further diagnostic investigations revealed the histopathological features of chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis in excised lung tissue, and Aspergillus fumigatus was isolated in lung tissue culture. This is one of the youngest described patients with this semi-invasive form of aspergillosis.