Trichosporon inkin fungemia case report: clinical and laboratory management

Trichosporon species are emerging as opportunistic pathogens that mainly affect immunocompromised patients. Patients with onco-hematological diseases usually present with fungemia by Trichosporon species, especially by T. asahii. Reports of this infection by other species of the genus are uncommon. Thus, in this paper, we present a case of T. inkin fungemia in a 39-year-old female patient with intestinal obstruction and absence of malignant hematological diseases. The late mycological diagnosis, the ineffective control of her pre-existing conditions and consequent failure to start antifungal therapy were the contributing factors for the patient's death.

ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS (ANNs) APPLIED TO ATR-FTIR SPECTRA TO CLASSIFY MEDICALLY IMPORTANT Trichosporon SPECIES

To distinguish clinically signicant fungus, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used. In this work, 75 Trichosporon strains from ve different species were cultivated on SDA media and FTIR attenuated total reection (ATR) readings was taken. The classication (FTIR spectra) results of cluster analysis were compared to articial neural network (ANN) analysis (supervised approach). Validation of training set showed that both techniques properly categorized 100% of the spectra, at least for T. asahii (n = 62) and T. inkin (n = 8). With the addition of T. loubieri (n=1) and T. asteroids (n=1), the ANN's accuracy became reliant on the training database, resulting in 90% to 100% classication.

Trichosporon species isolated from scald burn wound in an immunocompetent adult: a case report from Southern Assam

There are quite a good number of case reports on fungal infection in burn wounds in addition to the conventionally notorious bacterial infections in immune-compromised burn trauma patients leading to protracted course of morbidity and higher chances of mortality due to delay in diagnosis. The incidence of fungal infection in burn patients has been increasing with paradigm shift of causal fungus over last 2 decades from Candida albicans and molds to non-albicans Candida, Trichosporon species and other yeast like fungus. But there are rarely few cases of invasive Trichosporon infection in scald burn wounds in immunocompetent individuals. We therefore report a case of Trichosporon species isolation from a scald burn ulcer of an immunocompetent young male industrial worker in 2nd week of its clinical course which responded to oral fluconazole followed by skin grafting since this case scenario in itself is an uncommonly presented and reported event coupled with finding of first ever case with such presentation in this tertiary care institute of Southern Assam. This case is also reported with intention of raising awareness in surgeons for keeping vigil on non-healing burn wounds with empirical antibiotics and about the need of timely pus culture and sensitivity testing to rule out fungal colonization and prevent mortality due to disseminated fungal infection.

Epidemiological profile and antifungal susceptibility pattern of Trichosporon species in a tertiary care hospital in Chandigarh, India

Background and Purpose: Trichosporon species are ubiquitous in nature which are associated with fatal opportunistic invasive infections, especially in immunocompromised patients. The present study aimed to evaluate the epidemiological and clinical details, as well as the antifungal susceptibility pattern of the patients with Trichosporon infections. Materials and Methods: In total, 50 clinical isolates of Trichosporon species from various samples were included in this study. The samples were isolated over a period of 18 months from patients in a tertiary hospital in North India. The isolates were characterised phenotypically with Vitek MS (bioMérieux, France). Trichosporon spp. were isolated from urine (30%), nail (30%), tissue (16%), pleural fluid (14%), and sputum (5%). In total, majority of the isolates were of Trichosporon asahii (92%),followed by Trichosporon mucoides (6%), and Trichosporon ovoides (2%). It is noteworthy that most of the reported cases were from intensive care unit (34%). Results: Intravenous catheters, antibiotics, and antifungal uptake were significantly associated risk factors with Trichosporon infection. All invasive isolates were observed to be resistant in vitro to caspofungin and exhibited high minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values against amphotericin B, fluconazole, and 5-flucytosine. The MICs for voriconazole and posaconazole were low. Conclusion: Trichosporonosis is being increasingly reported all around the world,including India. The results of this study highlighted the importance of early detection and treatment for this emerging yeast and also added to the ongoing surveillance for the antifungal susuceptibility pattern for this fungus.