RESEARCH ARTICLE
Chronic Cutaneous Hyalohyphomycosis by Paecilomyces
N. Boufflette1, J.E. Arrese2, P. Leonard3, A.F. Nikkels*, 1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2014Volume: 8
First Page: 4
Last Page: 7
Publisher ID: TODJ-8-4
DOI: 10.2174/1874372201408010004
Article History:
Received Date: 23/12/2013Revision Received Date: 29/01/2014
Acceptance Date: 30/01/2014
Electronic publication date: 07/2/2014
Collection year: 2014
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Paecilomyces lilacinus is a ubiquitous saprophytic fungus that rarely causes infections in humans, frequently affecting the eyes and the skin. Cutaneous and subcutaneous infections mainly occur in immunocompromised hosts but have occasionally been reported in immunocompetent patients. The clinical spectrum is highly heterogeneous and diagnosis is often delayed.
A 60-year-old woman with idiopathic chronic necrotizing vasculitis treated since 10 years with a series of immunosuppressive therapies presented since three years various clinical presentations of chronic hyalohyphomycosis caused by P. lilacinus. Diagnosis was only obtained three years after the first clinical signs, following the histologic analysis of the surgical excision of a cutaneous abscess. Treatment with oral voriconazole was successful.
This case report illustrates the highly heterogeneous clinical aspects of hyalohyphomycosis by P. lilacinus leading to a delay in diagnosis and treatment, particularly in the immunosuppressed patient.