Korean J Clin Microbiol.  2010 Sep;13(3):135-139. 10.5145/KJCM.2010.13.3.135.

Fungemia due to Exophiala dermatitidis

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Korea. shinjh@chonnam.ac.kr

Abstract

We report a rare case of fungemia due to Exophiala (Wangiella) dermatitidis in a 4-month-old female infant who was admitted to an intensive care unit with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). E. dermatitidiswas repeatedly isolated from blood cultures (on the 28th and 32nd day of hospitalization) of the patient, who died on the 44th day of hospitalization. The fungus was identified by its morphological characteristics and DNA sequencing of both the D1/D2 domain and the ITS region of rDNA. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of E. dermatitidis fungemia in Korea.

Keyword

Exophiala (Wangiella) dermatitidis; Fungemia; ITS; Sequencing

MeSH Terms

DNA, Ribosomal
Exophiala
Female
Fungemia
Fungi
Hospitalization
Humans
Infant
Intensive Care Units
Korea
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Sudden Infant Death
DNA, Ribosomal

Figure

  • Fig. 1. Two weeks after incubation at 30°C on the potato dextrose agar, the colonies appeared as black, reverse black, wet, and mucoid.

  • Fig. 2. Microscopically, septate, and pale olivaceous hyphae and black yeast synanarmorphs were found. Conidiogenous cells were cylindrical, with rounded apeces producing one-celled conidia. Round to ovoid, pale brown conidia accumulated in balls or slipped down the side of conidiophores (Lactophenol cotton blue stain, ×400).

  • Fig. 3. A pyelogenetic tree of Exophiala and neighboring species, constructed by using neighbor-joining algorithm.


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