Endemic Mycoses Flashcards
(44 cards)
Endemic fungal infections
- These occur in immunologically normal and impaired hosts
- May have generally defined geographic endemic zones
- All are dimorphic
- Include
- Histoplasmosis
- Blastomycosis
- Sporotrichosis
- Paracoccidioidomycosis
- Penicilliosis (Talaromycosis)
- Coccidioidomycosis
Histoplasmosis
- Most common endemic mycosis in the United States
- Described by Samuel Darling in Panama in 1906
-originally thought to be Leishmania
• One species associated with human disease
- Histoplasma capsulatum
- var capsulatum
- var duboisii
Histoplasmosis - Mycology

Histoplasmosis - Ecology and epidemiology

Histoplasmosis - Clinical Disease
• Asymptomatic infection
- 50-85% of all cases
• Acute pulmonary
- Pneumonia
- Pericarditis
- Bob Dylan in 1997
- Chronic pulmonary
- Disseminated
- Fibrosing mediastinitis
Acute Pulmonary Histoplasmosis
- Often associated with a specific exposure
- Dry cough, fever, fatigue
- 5% erythema nodosum, myalgias, arthralgias
- Patchy alveolar infiltrates on chest radiograph
- Usually self-limited over several weeks

Chronic pulmonary histoplasmosis

Disseminated histoplasmosis
• Frequently associated with depressed cellular immune function
- AIDS
- Chronic course in older men
• Hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, weight loss
- mucous membrane ulcers
- skin lesions
- adrenal insufficiency
Histoplasmosis - Fibrosing mediastinitis
- Excessive fibrosis enveloping mediastinal structures
- Obstruction of vena cava & other structures
- hemoptysis, dyspnea
- may mimic nodular sclerosis Hodgkins disease

Histoplasmosis - Diagnosis
• Culture
- growth as mold at 30°C
- may take 6 weeks
- DNA probe
- Histological identification
- budding yeasts 2-4 µm inside macrophages
• Antigen detection
- enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for H. capsulatum polysaccharide
- blood, urine, bronchoalveolar fluid, CSF
- in >75% of diffuse pneumonia and disseminated disease
- less likely positive in less severe infection
- cross-reacts with Blastomyces, Penicillium, Paracoccidioides, Coccidioides
- Serologic tests
- complement fixing (CF) and immunodiffusion (ID)
- yeast & mycelial antigens
- persist for years
- most useful for persistent and chronic pneumonia
Histoplasmosis Therapy
• Many cases do not require antifungal therapy
- self-limited pulmonary
- mediastinal fibrosis
- pericarditis
- Symptomatic pulmonary & disseminated diseas - liposomal amphotericin B
- severe disease
- itraconazole
• mild to moderate disease
Blastomycosis

Blastomycosis - Mycology

Blastomycosis - Clinical Presentation

Blastomycosis - Diagnosis
• Histopathology
- broad-based budding yeast in tissue
• Culture
- takes several weeks
- mold difficult to identify by appearance difficult
- exoantigen
- Antibody
- not useful
- many cross-reactions
- Antigen test now available

Blastomycosis - Treatment
• Pulmonary disease
- mild to moderate: itraconazole
- severe disease: amphotericin B
• Disseminated disease
- CNS: amphotericin B
- Other
- Severe: amphotericin
- Mild to moderate: itraconazole
Sporotrichosis

Sporotrichosis - Clinical Presentation
• Chronic subcutaneous suppurating infection
- pustules
- ulcers
- lymphangitic spread
• Pneumonia and osteoarticular infection increasingly reported
- older male, smoker and alcohol use

Sporotrichosis - Diagnosis
- mold usually grows 3-5 days at 30°C
• “daisy” clusters on microscopic examination - histopathology reveals 3-5 µm budding, oval yeasts
- but rarely seen in human cases;
- “asteroid bodies” radiating eosinophilic rays

Sporotrichosis - Treatment
• Lymphocutaneous sporotrichosis
- itraconazole
• 200 mg oral daily -
saturated solution potassium hydroxide (SSKI)
- was standard treatment
- 5 drops TID oral with increasing weekly
- terbinafine
• 500 mg oral twice daily
- limited experience
- hyperthermia
- may be effective because of thermal intolerance of S. schenckii
- Pneumonia and osteoarticular disease
- amphotericin B intravenously
- itraconazole 200 mg oral twice daily
Paracoccidioidomycosis
- Endemic to Brazil
- Name derived because of initial confusion with coccidioidomycosis
- also called South American blastomycosis
- Most cases in older men with heavy tobacco and alcohol use
- Ulcerated lesions of the nares, oral cavity
- Due to Paracoccidioides brasiliensis
- dimorphic
- yeast-form seen in tissue
- “steering wheel”
- Itraconazole primary therapy

Penicilliosis (Talaromycosis)
• Penicillium marneffei (now called Talaromyces marneffei)
- isolated from a bamboo rat in Vietnam in 1956
- named after Hubert Marneffe, director of the Institut Pasteur in Indochina
- dimorphic
• First non-iatrogenic human case reported in 1973
- missionary with Hodgkins disease
• With the AIDS epidemic, now a common opportunistic infection in Southeast Asia
- Thuy Le, M.D., Ph.D, Associate Professor, Duke University
- M.D. 2002 from University of Arizona
- Fever, weight loss, papular skin lesions hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy

Penicilliosis (Talaromycosis) - Diagnosis
- On culture, produces a red, diffusable pigment
- Septate yeast seen on biopsy

Penicilliosis (Talaromycosis) - Therapy
- amphotericin B followed by itraconazole has been most commonly used








