title: Epidemiology of invasive fungal diseases on the basis of autopsy reports.
abstract: Invasive fungal diseases (IFDs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality among immunocompromised patients and cost to health services. They are difficult to prevent, diagnose, and treat. This difficulty in diagnosis leads us to treat them empirically by using several tools, including epidemiological data, non-culture methods and images. Most of the available epidemiological information may not be accurate because we are dealing with a disease that only has an estimated 50% chance of being diagnosed before death. Therefore, autopsy reports become a valuable tool, not only to define the real epidemiology, but also to address the trend in pre-mortem diagnosis, which is the best marker available to prove the efficiency of the research in IFD. This article reviews and analyzes the data on IFD obtained from 11 single-center, multi-center and nationwide autopsy reports published between 2008 and 2013, and also discusses the issues we need to address in order to improve the quality of the epidemiological data on invasive fungal disease obtained from autopsy reports.
authors.affiliation: Registro de Micosis Invasoras REMIIN (Invasive Mycoses' Registry) Yerbal 315 App 2B, 1405, Buenos Aires Argentina ; Argentinean Society of Infectious Diseases Av. De Mayo 1370, Floor 11th, Of. 300, 1085, Buenos Aires Argentina ; Italian Hospital of Mendoza East Access 1070, San José, 5519, Mendoza Argentina.
authors.forename: María Cecilia
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Dignani