One of the major challenges facing oncologists today is invasive fungal infection. Difficult to diagnose and deadly when missed, invasive fungal infection--primarily by Candida and Aspergillus organisms--is the major infectious cause of death associated with chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression. In this review, the problem will be described and evidence-based approaches to management, includin...

BACKGROUND Patients with hematologic malignancies and a history of an invasive fungal infection are considered to be at high risk of suffering reactivation of the infection during subsequent intensive chemotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS From January 1993 to September 1996, nine patients with a hematologic malignancy and previous invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) or Pseudallescheria boydii...

Few among the millions of fungal species fulfill four basic conditions necessary to infect humans: high temperature tolerance, ability to invade the human host, lysis and absorption of human tissue, and resistance to the human immune system. In previously healthy individuals, invasive fungal disease is rare because animals' sophisticated immune systems evolved in constant response to fungal cha...

as the data on the epidemiology and outcome of fungal infections in children with hematologic cancer are limited especially in iran, this study was aimed to delineate the epidemiologic features and outcome of fungal infections in this population. the medical records of all children with hematologic malignancies diagnosed with a fungal infection from 2005 to 2010 at a tertiary pediatric hospital...

Infections have almost become an inseparable part of the intensive care units throughout the globe in spite of numerous advancements in diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. With advances in critical care medicine and introduction of broad-spectrum antibiotics, the incidence of invasive fungal infections in intensive care is on the rise, especially in patients with immunosuppression. The ai...

Fungal infections of the nose and paranasal sinuses are frequent in this part of the world. One aspect of the increased frequency is the improved clinical, radiological and pathological diagnostic methods that are now available. Aspergillus is the commonest infecting fungus of the nose and the paranasal sinus. It is mainly a saprophytic spore producing fungus and can cause invasive and non-inva...

We read with interest the article by Xie and colleagues reporting the impact of invasive fungal infection (IFI) on outcomes [1]. In a cohort of 318 intensive care unit patients with severe sepsis they found 90 patients with IFI (28.3%). Ninety-three per cent of the IFIs were caused by Candida species, 3% by Aspergillus species and 4% were unclassified. Predominant sites of infection were the lu...

zygomycosis is a fulminant infection which usually afflicts patients who are immunocompromised by diabetes mellitus, malignancy or immunosuppressive therapy.l this disease is a rare but highly invasive fungal infection which occurs in organ transplant recipients. 2 mucormycosis confined to the gastrointestinal tract is an uncommon form of the disease. accounting for only seven percent of all mu...

The incidence of invasive fungal infections has increased dramatically in recent decades, especially among immunocompromised patients. However, the diagnosis of these infections in a timely fashion is often very difficult. Conventional microbiologic and histopathologic approaches generally are neither sensitive nor specific, and they often do not detect invasive fungal infection until late in t...