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Mian MU, Anjum MM, Abdullah H, Nadeem S, Siddiqui RN. Invasive Mediastinal Aspergillosis in an 18-Year-Old Immunocompetent Female Leading to Stroke. Cureus 2024; 16:e66014. [PMID: 39221385 PMCID: PMC11366262 DOI: 10.7759/cureus.66014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/02/2024] [Indexed: 09/04/2024] Open
Abstract
We present a case of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in an immunocompetent young female. An 18-year-old female presented with symptoms of a left-sided middle cerebral artery (MCA) stroke with right arm weakness and aphasia. Computed tomography (CT) brain confirmed the diagnosis of stroke. Further history revealed that the patient had been experiencing low-grade fevers with occasional shortness of breath for the past year. The blood work had eosinophilia at that time for which she was given mebendazole but saw little improvement. Chest X-rays showed upper lobe consolidation for which a tuberculosis (TB) workup was also done, which also came out negative. At the current presentation, she underwent further workup with echocardiography and eventual ultrasound-guided mediastinal biopsy that ultimately led to the correct diagnosis of aspergillosis. However, sadly, it was already too late for the patient who passed away one day after the commencement of the amphotericin B therapy. This paper hopes to decrease the threshold of clinical suspicion for invasive aspergillosis (IA) regardless of the immunity status of the patient, especially if they are presenting with an unrelenting mediastinal or pulmonary symptom complex in the setting of eosinophilia.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Saad Nadeem
- Internal Medicine, Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, PAK
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Soni S, Hettle D, Hutchings S, Wade S, Forrest-Jones K, Sequeiros I, Borman A, Johnson EM, Harding I. Promoting antifungal stewardship through an antifungal multidisciplinary team in a paediatric and adult tertiary centre in the UK. JAC Antimicrob Resist 2024; 6:dlae119. [PMID: 39104771 PMCID: PMC11299947 DOI: 10.1093/jacamr/dlae119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2024] [Accepted: 07/08/2024] [Indexed: 08/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) present significant challenges, especially among immunocompromised patients, with associated high morbidity, mortality and significant economic impact. Diagnostic difficulties and the emergence of antifungal resistance necessitates enhanced antifungal stewardship (AFS) efforts. Methods We report outcomes from a review of our multidisciplinary approach to AFS, based in a 1300-bed teaching hospital in the South-West of England. Retrospectively reviewing all adult and paediatric cases over 12 months in 2022, we investigated demographics, diagnosis, antifungal therapy and adherence to AFS advice, including clinical, mycological, financial and teamwork metrics. Data were extracted from our AFS database, supported by pharmacy records. Results The AFS multidisciplinary team (MDT) reviewed 111 patients, with 30 day and 1 year mortality of 22.7% and 35.4%, respectively. IFIs classified as proven accounted for 26%, with fungal pathogens identified in 36.3% of cases. Antifungal consumption (by 25.1%) and expenditure (by 59.9%) decreased from 2018 to 2022. The AFS MDT issued 324 recommendations, with a 93% acceptance rate. Conclusions Our approach to AFS, centred around a weekly MDT, demonstrated improvements in IFI management, antifungal consumption and cost-efficiency. This single-centre study highlights the value of a comprehensive, collaborative approach to AFS involving experts in mycology, infection, radiology, antifungal therapies and clinical teams. The programme's success in paediatric and adult populations and the near-universal acceptance of its recommendations show its potential as a model for replication. It represents a model for enhancing patient care and AFS practices, with future directions aimed at expanding service reach and the integration of further rapid diagnostic modalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuchita Soni
- Department of Microbiology, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NU, UK
| | - David Hettle
- Department of Microbiology, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NU, UK
| | - Stephanie Hutchings
- United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) South-West Regional Laboratory, Southmead Hospital, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol BS10 5NB, UK
| | - Susan Wade
- Pharmacy Department, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NU, UK
| | - Kate Forrest-Jones
- Pharmacy Department, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NU, UK
| | - Iara Sequeiros
- Department of Radiology, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NU, UK
| | - Andrew Borman
- UK National Mycology Reference Laboratory, National Infection Service, United Kingdom Health Security Agency South-West, Bristol BS10 5NB, UK
- MRC Centre for Medical Mycology, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK
| | - Elizabeth M Johnson
- UK National Mycology Reference Laboratory, National Infection Service, United Kingdom Health Security Agency South-West, Bristol BS10 5NB, UK
- MRC Centre for Medical Mycology, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK
| | - Irasha Harding
- Department of Microbiology, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NU, UK
- United Kingdom Health Security Agency, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NU, UK
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Lass-Flörl C, Steixner S. The changing epidemiology of fungal infections. Mol Aspects Med 2023; 94:101215. [PMID: 37804792 DOI: 10.1016/j.mam.2023.101215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2023] [Revised: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/09/2023]
Abstract
Invasive fungal diseases are common complications in critically ill patients and in those with significant underlying imbalanced immune systems. Fungal co-, and/or super-infections are emerging and have become a rising concern within the last few years. In Europe, cases of candidiasis and aspergillosis dominate, followed by mucormycosis in India. Epidemiological studies show an increasing trend in the incidence of all three entities. Parallel to this, a shift within the underlying fungal pathogens is observed. More non-albicans Candida infections and aspergillosis with cryptic species are on the rise; cryptic species may cover intrinsic resistance to azoles and other antifungal drugs. The recent COVID-19 pandemic led to a significantly increasing incidence of invasive fungal diseases among hospitalized patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cornelia Lass-Flörl
- Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Innsbruck, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Stephan Steixner
- Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Innsbruck, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria
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Cazzaniga J, Koutras N, Patel P. Mortality and Clinical Outcomes of Aspergillus and COVID-19 Co-infection: A Retrospective Analysis. Cureus 2023; 15:e50321. [PMID: 38205484 PMCID: PMC10776451 DOI: 10.7759/cureus.50321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2023] [Accepted: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are more susceptible to secondary infections. Aspergillus co-infection has emerged as one of the most alarming complications in critically ill COVID-19 patients due to the disease itself or the use of immunomodulators and immunosuppressants for treatment. This study aimed to examine the mortality rates and clinical outcomes associated with Aspergillus and COVID-19 co-infection using data obtained from the largest nationwide inpatient sample database in the United States. METHODS The National (Nationwide) Inpatient Sample (NIS) database is a vast and openly accessible collection of data that records millions of hospital admissions in the United States. For our research, we utilized the NIS 2020 database to identify adult patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and categorized them based on co-infection with Aspergillus. To examine the NIS database, we utilized various statistical methods such as univariate and multivariate analyses, descriptive statistics, and regression analysis. RESULTS Of the 16.7 million patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection, 1485 developed Aspergillus co-infection. The demographics showed a predominance of males with 920 males and 565 women. A total of 46% were Caucasians, 17.2% were African-Americans, and 29.5% were Hispanics. The most common comorbidities were chronic pulmonary disease (40.7%), hypertension (41.4%), diabetes with chronic complications (37.7%), leukemia (4.0%), lymphoma (3.7%), and solid tumors (3.7%). Hospital mortality with co-infection was 53.2%, length of stay (LOS) 26.9 days, and economic utilization $138,093 in comparison to patients without co-infection with in-hospital mortality of 13.2%, LOS of 7.9 days, and cost of 21,490. Age-adjusted mortality was 6.6 (confidence interval: 5.9-7.3). CONCLUSION Our study indicated that the mortality rate in COVID-19 patients with Aspergillus infection was four-fold higher. Furthermore, comorbidities, such as diabetes mellitus, chronic pulmonary disease, and obesity, have been associated with worse outcomes. Further research is necessary to understand the etiological relationship between Aspergillus infection and COVID-19 in order to develop effective treatment strategies that mitigate the impact of this lethal combination on patient health outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juliana Cazzaniga
- Medicine, Florida International University, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Miami, USA
| | - Nicole Koutras
- Medicine, Florida International University, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Miami, USA
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Peláez-García de la Rasilla T, Mato-López Á, Pablos-Puertas CE, González-Huerta AJ, Gómez-López A, Mellado E, Amich J. Potential Implication of Azole Persistence in the Treatment Failure of Two Haematological Patients Infected with Aspergillus fumigatus. J Fungi (Basel) 2023; 9:805. [PMID: 37623576 PMCID: PMC10455522 DOI: 10.3390/jof9080805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2023] [Revised: 07/27/2023] [Accepted: 07/28/2023] [Indexed: 08/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients receiving allogeneic haematopoieticcell transplantation. The deep immunosuppression and a variety of potential additional complications developed in these patients result in IA reaching mortality rates of around 50-60%. This mortality is even higher when the patients are infected with azole-resistant isolates, demonstrating that, despite the complexity of management, adequate azole treatment can have a beneficial effect. It is therefore paramount to understand the reasons why antifungal treatment of IA infections caused by azole-susceptible isolates is often unsuccessful. In this respect, there are already various factors known to be important for treatment efficacy, for instance the drug concentrations achieved in the blood, which are thus often monitored. We hypothesize that antifungal persistence may be another important factor to consider. In this study we present two case reports of haematological patients who developed proven IA and suffered treatment failure, despite having been infected with susceptible isolates, receiving correct antifungal treatment and reaching therapeutic levels of the azole. Microbiological analysis of the recovered infective isolates showed that the patients were infected with multiple strains, several of which were persisters to voriconazole and/or isavuconazole. Therefore, we propose that azole persistence may have contributed to therapeutic failure in these patients and that this phenomenon should be considered in future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teresa Peláez-García de la Rasilla
- Microbiology Department, Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA), 33011 Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
- Institute for Health Research in the Principality of Asturias, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Principado de Asturias (ISPA), 33011 Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
| | - Álvaro Mato-López
- Mycology Reference Laboratory (Laboratorio de Referencia e Investigación en Micología LRIM), National Centre for Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), 28220 Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain
| | - Clara E. Pablos-Puertas
- Mycology Reference Laboratory (Laboratorio de Referencia e Investigación en Micología LRIM), National Centre for Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), 28220 Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ana Julia González-Huerta
- Hematology-Stem Cell Transplantation Unit, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias (HUCA), 33011 Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
| | - Alicia Gómez-López
- Mycology Reference Laboratory (Laboratorio de Referencia e Investigación en Micología LRIM), National Centre for Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), 28220 Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain
- CIBER de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC-CB21/13/00105), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Emilia Mellado
- Mycology Reference Laboratory (Laboratorio de Referencia e Investigación en Micología LRIM), National Centre for Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), 28220 Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain
- CIBER de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC-CB21/13/00105), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Jorge Amich
- Mycology Reference Laboratory (Laboratorio de Referencia e Investigación en Micología LRIM), National Centre for Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), 28220 Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain
- Manchester Fungal Infection Group (MFIG), Division of Evolution, Infection, and Genomics, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester M139NT, UK
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Zhang Y, Wang S, Zhou C, Zhang Y, Pan J, Pan B, Wang B, Hu B, Guo W. Epidemiology of Clinically Significant Aspergillus Species from a Large Tertiary Hospital in Shanghai, China, for the Period of Two Years. Infect Drug Resist 2023; 16:4645-4657. [PMID: 37484905 PMCID: PMC10361289 DOI: 10.2147/idr.s417840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Aspergillus species are becoming a major public health concern worldwide due to the increase in the incidence of aspergillosis and emergence of antifungal resistance. In this study, we surveyed all Aspergillus species isolated from aspergillosis patients in Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University, Shanghai, China, from 2019 to 2021. Methods We characterized the susceptibility profiles of these Aspergillus species to medical azoles (voriconazole, itraconazole and posaconazole) using YeastOneTM broth microdilution system. To determine the underlying antifungal resistance mechanisms in azole-resistant A. fumigatus (ARAf) isolates, we characterized mutations in the cyp51A gene. Genotypic diversity of sampled A. fumigatus was investigated using CSP-typing. Results A total of 112 Aspergillus isolates (81 A. fumigatus, 17 A. flavus, 5 A. niger, 2 A. terreus, 2 A. lentulus, 2 A. oryzae, 1 A. nidulans, 1 A. versicolor and 1 A. sydowii) from 105 patients diagnosed with aspergillosis (including proven or probable invasive aspergillosis, chronic pulmonary aspergillosis, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and cutaneous aspergillosis) were obtained. Eight isolates (7 A. fumigatus and 1 A. niger) from seven patients were either azole non-susceptible or non-wild type. Azole non-susceptible or non-wild type rate was 7.1%/isolate and 6.7%/patient analysed. Four ARAf harbored TR34/L98H mutation, whereas one carried TR46/Y121F/T289A allele. The 81 A. fumigatus isolates were spread across 8 CSP types with t01 to be the predominant type (53.1%). ARAf isolates were distributed over CSP types t01, t02, t04A and t11. Conclusion Results from this study provided us with an understanding of the antifungal resistance and related characteristics of Aspergillus species in Eastern China. Further comparisons of our results with those in other countries reflect potential clonal expansion of A. fumigatus in our region. Further surveillance study is warranted to guide antifungal therapy and for epidemiological purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuyi Zhang
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
| | - Suzhen Wang
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
| | - Chunmei Zhou
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
| | - Yao Zhang
- Department of Infectious Disease, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
| | - Jue Pan
- Department of Infectious Disease, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
| | - Baishen Pan
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
| | - Beili Wang
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
| | - Bijie Hu
- Department of Infectious Disease, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
| | - Wei Guo
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
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