A bagpipe player may have died from a lung disease caused by fungi growing in his instrument, doctors report today.
The Manchester doctors say the condition could be called "bagpipe lung" and warn it could affect other wind instrument players.
Writing in Thorax, they report that the patient eventually died from extensive lung damage caused by his hypersensitivity pneumonitis.
He was first diagnosed in 2009 and by 2014 could not walk more than 20 metres.
But he continued playing the bagpipes – and only enjoyed remission from his disease when he left them behind during a trip to Australia.
Tests on his instrument found a long list of fungi, including Paecilomyces variotti, Fusarium oxysporum, Penicillium species, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, Trichosporon mucoides and Exophiala dermatitidis.
The doctors say there have been other reports of the lung disease linked to other wind instruments, such as the trombone and saxophone.
Dr Jenny King, from Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, says: “This is the first case report identifying fungal exposure, from a bagpipe player, as a potential trigger for the development of hypersensitivity pneumonitis.
“The clinical history of daily bagpipe playing, coupled with marked symptomatic improvement when this exposure was removed, and the identification of multiple potential precipitating antigens isolated from the bagpipes, make this the likely cause."
Bagpipe lung: a new type of interstitial lung disease? Thorax 23 August 2016; doi:10.1136/thoraxjnl-2016-208751 [abstract]
Leave a Reply