Opportunistic fungal infections including aspergillosis species, candida species, and fusarium can be found in HIV-infected patients. Disseminated diseases due to endemic mycoses including histoplasmosis, coccidioidomycosis, and blastomycosis are all being reported among HIV patients who reside in the known endemic areas. However, in the non-endemic areas, or due to the rarity of these pathogen...

Amphotericin B as a lipid complex and as a deoxycholate suspension (Fungizone) was tested against murine blastomycosis. All doses of each form prolonged survival (P less than 0.05 to 0.001). Fungizone was more effective than lipid complex at doses of 0.8 mg/kg of body weight. However, lipid complex at 12.8 mg/kg was not toxic and superior in efficacy (P less than 0.001) to 2.0 mg of Fungizone p...

Blastomycosis is a fungal infection of humans and other animals, caused by theorganism Blastomycesdermatitidis.Blastomycosis has a predilection for involvement of the lungs, skin, bone, and genitourinary tract. We report a unique case of disseminated disease in an immunocompetent male with an unhealed cutaneous lesion on right thigh, who underwent surgical debridement and postoperatively develo...

We evaluated the efficacy of voriconazole, a new broad-spectrum triazole antifungal compound, in the treatment of murine pulmonary blastomycosis. Since mice metabolize voriconazole rapidly, we took advantage of our previous observation that administration of grapefruit juice to mice resulted in suitable serum voriconazole concentrations so that treatment studies with mice could be done (A. M. S...

We investigated how innate sensing by the mannose receptor (MR) influences the development of antifungal immunity. We demonstrate that MR senses mannan on the surface of attenuated Blastomyces dermatitidis vaccine yeast and that MR(-/-) mice demonstrate impaired vaccine immunity against lethal experimental blastomycosis, compared with wild-type control mice. Using naive Blastomyces-specific tra...

Case description- A two-year-old intact Golden Retriever was affected with the 6-months previous history of blastomycosis and treatment was performed using fluconazole. Clinical findings- Cough, fever, nasal discharge, dry and harsh lung sounds with peripheral lymphadenopathy was observed. Emphysematous change and large pulmonary bulla was reported in computed tomography of the thorax. Treatm...

Blastomycosis is a fungal disease endemic to the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys and to the southeastern United States [1 ]. From the time blastomycosis was first isolated from the skin by Gilchrist in 1896 [2] , numerous epidemiologic, laboratory, and clinical data have been collated in an attempt to fully define this disease process. There is wide variability in the clinical presentation, ...

Blastomycesdermatitidis has been isolated only infrequently from environmental sources and thus the ecology of B. dermatitidis remains incompletely understood. Other methods of detection of prevalence are also insensitive. Our knowledge is based on the collected reports of sporadic cases in humans and dogs as well as the studies of 11 epidemics or clusters of disease. It can mimic many diseases...