| pubmed-article:8202201 | pubmed:abstractText | Two cases of disseminated Penicillium marneffei infection, as an imported disease, in HIV-1-infected patients with a severe immunodeficiency are reported. These patients had a history of travel in Southeast Asia where P. marneffei is endemic. Fever, cough, malaise, hepatosplenomegaly, anaemia, skin lesions and mucosal ulcers are the main clinical characteristics. Differentiation from histoplasmosis and leishmaniasis might be difficult. Treatment with amphotericin B was successful. Anti-fungal maintenance therapy is most likely indicated. | lld:pubmed |
| pubmed-article:8202201 | pubmed:otherAbstract | PIP: A 33-year-old, HIV-1 positive, white, homosexual man was hospitalized in May, 1991, because of fever, cough, skin eruptions, anorexia, and weight loss during the previous 2 months. In October, 1990, he had traveled in Sumatra. On examination he was ill, tachypneic, normotensive with a temperature of 39.1 degrees Celsius. The spleen was substantially enlarged. Laboratory investigations showed: ALAT 72 U/I (normal 23 U/1), LDH 508 U/1 (normal 275 U/1). A bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage revealed yeast cells. Gastroscopy showed an ulcer in the hypopharynx and an erosion in the stomach. Biopsies of this ulcer demonstrated the presence of Penicillium marneffei. Biopsies of the liver showed the same organism. The patient was treated with amphotericin B induction therapy (1 dd 0.5 mg/kg for 21 days, total dose of 730 mg) in combination with flucytosine (3 dd 2500 mg, total dose 142 g in 19 days). In the following 2 weeks the temperature became normal, and the dyspnea and the skin eruptions disappeared, except for the mollusca contagiosa. The spleen diminished by 50%. LDH and ALAT became normal. Oral maintenance therapy followed with fluconazole (the first 3 months 400 mg daily, followed by 200 mg a day). 24 months later, no recurrence had been observed. Case 2 was a 28-year-old, HIV-infected, homosexual man, born in Suriname, who was hospitalized in October, 1991, with prolonged fever, dyspnea, and a painful throat. In March, 1991, he had traveled in rural Thailand. AIDS was diagnosed on the basis of cerebral toxoplasmosis in August, 1991. A biopsy of the ulcer in the oropharynx showed an active aspecific inflammation and also P. marneffei. Treatment with amphotericin B intravenously (0.5 mg/kg, total dose 1052 mg in 32 days) was commenced. The lesions in the oral cavity and throat, the lymph nodes, and the shortness of breath disappeared within a few days. Ten months later he died from emaciation caused by cryptosporidiosis. | lld:pubmed |
