Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis.

Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, a syndrome associated with asthma, manifests with transient pulmonary infiltrates and eosinophilia and can progress to severe proximal bronchiectasis, bronchocentric granulomatosis and pulmonary fibrosis. Early recognition and treatment should favorably influence these complications. Use of the precipitins test with Aspergillus antigens as a screening procedure has identified 99 possible cases in California over a 50-month period. At least 44 cases have been confirmed; and demographic analysis shows that a preponderance of them involved patients less than 35 years old, occurred in farming and rural communities and were discovered in the months of September through February.