HISTOPATHOLOGY OF THE NODOSE LESION OF ACUTE COCCIDIOIDOMYCOSIS

Abstract

ACUTE coccidioidomycosis is a disease with a known etiology in which lesions resembling idiopathic erythema nodosum occur with such regularity that a histologic study of the lesions was undertaken in order to compare them with nodose lesions of the lower leg of questionable or unknown causation. Gifford¹ was the first to express the opinion that the nodose lesions of "San Joaquin valley fever" or "desert fever" were due to coccidioides. Correlating her observations with his own, Dickson² verified the fact that these lesions were manifestations of the primary infection by coccidioides. Dickson and Gifford³ named the disease the primary type of coccidioidomycosis, thereby differentiating it from the chronic granulomatous and disseminated forms. In some of the acute types of coccidioidomycosis infection, the earliest workers were confused by the pulmonary changes. Clinically, they were confronted by an acute pneumonic process which was diagnosed roentgenologically