Respiratory failure due to blastomycosis infection in a patient with hypertension, cirrhosis and chronic pancreatitis.

Blastomycosis is an endemic fungal infection in North America. It usually causes acute and occasionally chronic pneumonias with disseminated infection, particularly skin lesion, as an extrapulmonary manifestation. Many cases are asymptomatic; however, a few patients progress to develop severe pulmonary infection leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome, which carries a high mortality rate. Disseminated blastomycosis involving the heart is exceptionally rare and can be potentially life threatening. To our knowledge, there are only four reported cases of cardiac blastomycosis in the literature. Here, we report a case of cardiac blastomycosis who initially presented with respiratory failure. In our patient, it was practically impossible to establish a diagnosis of cardiac blastomycosis antemortem because of his previous cardiac history related to alcoholic cardiomyopathy, which confounded the cardiac findings. This case raises an important issue of clinically considering involvement of the heart in cases of disseminated blastomycosis. Perhaps if the patient did not have a prior cardiac history, a new onset heart failure may have suggested cardiac involvement.