Table of Contents
Definition / general | Case reports | Diagnosis | Microscopic (histologic) description | Additional referencesCite this page: DePond WD. Coccidioides. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/lymphnodescoccidiodes.html. Accessed January 24th, 2021.
Definition / general
- Also called San Jaquin Valley Fever
- Dimorphic fungus with distinct yeast and mold stages
- Endemic to Lower Sonoran Desert (southwest US, Central and South America)
- Usually self limiting, but more severe disease in immunocompromised hosts
Case reports
- 27 year old man on steroids for clinical pneumonia with enlarged paratracheal lymph node (Arch Pathol Lab Med 2005;129:699)
Diagnosis
- Culture (grows on all media)
- Has enteroarthric conidia (alternating segments of hyphae undergo autolysis, while surviving segments form infective barrel shaped multinucleate arthroconidia)
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Thick walled spherules 20 - 150 microns containing 3 - 5 micron endospores, surrounded by a giant cell granulomatous reaction
Additional references