Successful outcome of treatment of a disseminated infection due to Fusarium dimerum in a leukemia patient.
We report the first case of proven disseminated infection due to Fusarium dimerum associated with a favorable outcome in a patient with acute leukemia and prolonged neutropenia. The patient presented persistent fever, multiple necrotic skin lesions, and bilateral pneumopathy. F. dimerum was first isolated from three blood cultures and then from a skin biopsy and a mouth wash. Microscopy of positive blood cultures showed hyphae with phialides and few curved unicellular and some rare bicellular phialoconidia, permitting immediate presumptive identification of the genus FUSARIUM: The patient failed to respond to conventional amphotericin B but recovered after treatment was switched to amphotericin B-lipid complex and neutrophil recovery.
Letscher-Bru
Valérie
V
Institut de Parasitologie et de Pathologie Tropicale, Faculté de Médecine, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
Campos
France
F
Waller
Jocelyn
J
Randriamahazaka
Raoul
R
Candolfi
Ermanno
E
Herbrecht
Raoul
R
D000666:Amphotericin B / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004338:Drug Combinations; D005260:Female; D005670:Fusarium / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009181:Mycoses / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010715:Phosphatidylglycerols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000150:complications*
D000935:Antifungal Agents; D004338:Drug Combinations; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines; D010715:Phosphatidylglycerols; C068538:liposomal amphotericin B; D000666:Amphotericin B