Study of eight cases of coccidioidomycosis in a hospital of Buenos Aires.

Some clinical, epidemiological and diagnostic aspects from eight patients with chronic coccidioidomycosis (five pulmonary and three disseminated), diagnosed in the Mu?iz Hospital, were retrospectively analyzed. At diagnosis, lung cavitation and hemoptysis were present in five and four patients, respectively. Smoking (three cases) and alcoholism (two cases) were the most frequent predisposing factors. Diagnosis was achieved by microscopy and cultures from sputum (five cases), tongue and lymph node biopsies and scraping of cutaneous lesion achieved diagnosis. At diagnosis, most patients had positive coccidioidin skin test and serology. Four patients were born within the endemic area and two worked in contact with the soil of the same area.