Table of Contents
- Overview
- Symptoms
- Treatment
- Prevention
- Images
Ohio River Valley fever
Symptoms
Symptoms depend on the type of infection:
- Acute asymptomatic pulmonary (lung) histoplasmosis -- no symptoms
- Acute symptomatic pulmonary histoplasmosis:
Fever Chills Cough -
Chest pain when breathing in
- Chronic pulmonary histoplasmosis:
- Chest pain
- Cough, possibly coughing up blood
- Fever
- Shortness of breath
- Sweating
- Disseminated histoplasmosis:
- Fevers
- Headache
- Neck stiffness
Mouth sores - Skin lesions
- Other histoplasma symptoms:
- Joint pain
Rashes -
Skin nodules (red lumps called erythema nodosum), most often on the lower legs
Signs and tests
How histoplasmosis is diagnosed depends on the body parts involved. Tests that may be done include:
- Skin biopsy
- Blood, urine, or sputum tests to look for signs of histoplasmosis infection
- Chest CT scan
- Chest x-ray
- Spinal tap to look for signs of infection in cerbrospinal fluid (CSF)
Images
Acute histoplasmosis
Disseminated histoplasmosis
Lungs
Histoplasmosis, disseminated in HIV patient
Previous Section
Next Section
Histoplasmosis Treatment
Review Date: 09/23/2010
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of
General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington
School of Medicine; Jatin M. Vyas, MD, PhD, Instructor in Medicine,
Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Medicine, Division of
Infectious Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed
by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
