Isolated colonic aspergillosis in an immunocompetent individual diagnosed by metagenomic next-generation sequencing: A case report

Figure 2 Pathological images. A: The biopsy specimen from the transverse colon mucosa on day 8 of diarrhea shows chronic inflammation, characterized by a diffuse infiltrate of lymphocytes and plasma cells in the lamina propria, accompanied by lymphoid hyperplasia and stromal edema (arrows). This suggests that the patient may have had a persistent, long-term asymptomatic inflammatory reaction in the transverse colon even before the onset of diarrhea; B: The biopsy specimen from the transverse colon mucosa on day 64 of diarrhea reveals moderate chronic inflammation, with an increased density of lymphocytes and plasma cells in the lamina propria, accompanied by mild active inflammation as evidenced by the presence of scattered neutrophils in the colonic mucosa (arrows). No caseous necrosis or granulomatous lesions are observed. Compared with panel A, the mucosal inflammation in panel B shows a tendency of progression; however, neither panel A nor panel B supports diagnoses such as intestinal tuberculosis or inflammatory bowel disease.