Fatal, complete splenic infarction and hepatic infection due to disseminated Trichosporon beigelii infection

OUP accepted manuscript

Background

Invasive infections due to Trichosporon spp. are life-threatening opportunistic fungal infections that require complex clinical management. Guidelines assist clinicians but can be challenging to comply with.

Objectives

To develop a scoring tool to facilitate and quantify adherence to current guideline recommendations for invasive trichosporonosis.

Methods

We reviewed the current guideline for managing rare yeast infections (ECMM, ISHAM and ASM). The most important recommendations for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up were assembled and weighted according to their strength of recommendation and level of evidence. Additional items considered highly relevant for clinical management were also included.

Results

The resulting EQUAL Trichosporon Score 2022 comprises 18 items, with a maximum score of 39 points. For diagnostics, seven or eight items, depending on whether organ involvement is present or not, apply, resulting in a maximum of 18 or 21 points. Recommendations on diagnostics include imaging, infectious diseases expert consultation, culture, microscopy, molecular techniques, histopathology, and susceptibility testing. For treatment, six recommendations with a maximum of ten points were identified, with two additional points for organ involvement and one point for second-line treatment in uncontrolled disease. Treatment recommendations include immediate initiation, source control, pharmacological treatment, therapeutic drug monitoring, treatment duration and surgical intervention. Follow-up comprises two items with five points maximum, covering follow-up blood cultures and imaging.

Conclusions

The EQUAL Trichosporon Score weighs and aggregates factors recommended for optimal management of Trichosporon infections. It provides a tool for antifungal stewardship as well as for measuring guideline adherence, but remains to be correlated with patient outcomes.

Successful Treatment of Breakthrough Trichosporon asahii Fungemia by the Combination Therapy of Fluconazole and Liposomal Amphotericin B in a Patient with Follicular Lymphoma

Invasive trichosporonosis is a rare and lethal fungal infection that occurs in immunocompromised patients. Breakthrough trichosporonosis can occur in patients treated with echinocandins since Trichosporon spp. are resistant to these antifungal agents. We report a case of breakthrough Trichosporon asahii fungemia. A 62-year-old Japanese woman with relapsed follicular lymphoma was treated empirically with broad-spectrum antibiotics and micafungin due to an intermittent fever during reinduction chemotherapy. After four cycles of anti-cancer chemotherapy, she experienced a high neutropenic fever and T. asahii was subsequently detected from a blood culture. The patient was not given voriconazole due to the contraindication for use with carbamazepine, and she was successfully treated with fluconazole plus liposomal amphotericin B without any serious complications. The combined therapy of fluconazole and liposomal amphotericin B may therefore be useful in treating T. asahii fungemia, especially in patients receiving antiepileptic agents.

Invasive Trichosporon Infection: a Systematic Review on a Re-emerging Fungal Pathogen

Objectives: This review aimed to better depict the clinical features and address the issue of therapeutic management of Trichosporon deep-seated infections.

Methods: We comprehensively reviewed the cases of invasive Trichosporon infection reported in the literature from 1994 (date of taxonomic modification) to 2015. Data from antifungal susceptibility testing (AST) studies were also analyzed.

Results: Two hundred and three cases were retained and split into four groups: homeopathy (n = 79), other immunodeficiency conditions (n = 41), miscellaneous (n = 58) and newborns (n = 25). Trichosporon asahii was the main causative species (46.7%) and may exhibit cross-resistance to different antifungal classes. The unfavorable outcome rate was at 44.3%. By multivariate analysis, breakthrough infection (OR 2.45) was associated with unfavorable outcome, whilst the use of an azole-based therapy improved the prognosis (OR 0.16). Voriconazole-based treatment was associated with favorable outcome in hematological patients (73.6 vs. 41.8%; p = 0.016). Compiled data from AST demonstrated that (i) T. asahii exhibits the highest MICs to amphotericin B and (ii) voriconazole has the best in vitro efficacy against clinical isolates of Trichosporon spp.

Conclusions:Trichosporon infection is not only restricted to hematological patients. Analysis of compiled data from AST and clinical outcome support the use of voriconazole as first line therapy.