Fusarium
spp. causes infections mostly in patients with prolonged neutropenia. We describe the case of a disseminated
Fusarium
solani
infection in a patient with acute myeloid leukemia which never ...reached complete remission during its clinical course. The patient had profound neutropenia and developed skin nodules and pneumonia in spite of posaconazole prophylaxis.
F. solani
was isolated from blood and skin biopsy, being identified from its morphology and by molecular methods. By broth dilution method, the strain was resistant to azoles, including voriconazole and posaconazole, and to echinocandins. MIC to amphotericin B was 4 mg/L. The patient initially seemed to benefit from therapy with voriconazole and amphotericin B, but, neutropenia perduring, his clinical condition deteriorated with fatal outcome. All efforts should be made to determine the correct diagnosis as soon as possible in a neutropenic patient and to treat this infection in a timely way, assuming pathogen susceptibility while tests of antimicrobial susceptibility are pending. A review of the most recent literature on invasive fungal infections is reported.
The zoophilic dermatophyte
has cats as natural reservoir, but it is able to infect a wide range of hosts, including humans, where different clinical features of the so-called ringworm dermatophytosis ...have been described. Human infections are increasingly been reported in Mediterranean countries. A reliable control program against
infection in cats should include an antifungal treatment of both the infected animals and their living environment. In this article, a herbal mixture composed of chemically defined essential oils (EOs) of
(1%),
,
, and
(0.5% each) was formulated and its antifungal activity assessed against
arthrospores which represent the infective environmental stage of
. Single compounds present in higher amounts in the mixture were also separately tested in vitro.
and
EOs were most effective (minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) 0.5%), followed by EOs of
(MIC 2%) and
(MIC 2.5%). Minimum fungicidal concentrations (MFC) values were 0.75% (
), 1.5% (
), 2.5% (
) and 3% (
). MIC and MFC values of the mixture were 0.25% and 0.5%, respectively. The daily spray of the mixture (200 μL) directly onto infected hairs inhibited fungal growth from the fourth day onwards. The compounds present in higher amounts exhibited variable antimycotic activity, with MIC values ranging from >10% (limonene) to 0.1% (geranial and neral). Thus, the mixture showed a good antifungal activity against arthrospores present in infected hairs. These results are promising for a further application of the mixture as an alternative tool or as an adjuvant in the environmental control of feline microsporosis.
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