[Opportunistic lung infections in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease; a side effect of inhalation corticosteroids?].

In four patients, men of 64, 66 and 69 years old and a woman of 65 years, who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and used inhalation corticosteroids in a relatively high dose (800-1600 micrograms of budesonide per day), a pulmonary infection was diagnosed caused by Mycobacterium malmoense (the first two patients) and Aspergillus (the other two) respectively. Inhalation corticosteroids are of great importance in the treatment of asthmatic patients. Their place in the treatment of patients with COPD is much less clear. The patients did not have an immunological deficiency or anatomical pulmonary or bronchial deformation which could have explained the occurrence of these infections. The high dosages of inhalation corticosteroids may have been involved in the cause of these infections by suppressing the T-cell response locally. In view of this, longterm inhalation corticosteroid treatment should be prescribed in COPD patients only if the efficacy of the medication has been proved in the individual patient involved.