Infect Chemother.  2007 Oct;39(5):263-269.

A Case of Disseminated Fusarium Infection Mimicking Varicella Skin Eruption in Patient with Acute Leukemia and Review of Korean Literatures

• Oh SJ
• Jeong HS
• Kim JS
• Kim TS
• Cho BS
• Choi SM
• Kim M
• Lee YS
• Lee S
• Shin WS

Abstract

Recently, we experienced a case of disseminated fusarial blood stream infection with varicelloid skin eruptions, who had suffered from persistent neutropenic fever after salvage chemotherapy for relapsed acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Neutropenia continued in spite of G-CSF and granulocyte transfusion, and he failed to respond to conventional amphotericin B initially, and then liposomal amphotericin B and voriconazole combination therapy. Disseminated fusariosis can be diagnosed by blood cultures in 50% of patients and present skin lesions in more than 80% of patients. So, typical skin lesions are important clue to diagnose of the disseminated fusariosis. However, many skin lesions in immunocompromised hosts are due to various infectious and non-infectious causes. So, this case shows that it is important to obtain biopsy specimens of skin lesions for histopathologic examination, culture and staining. Here, we present our case with the review of the literatures reported in our country, so far.

Keyword

Fusarium; Leukemia; Neutropenia; Skin

MeSH Terms

Amphotericin B
Biopsy
Chickenpox*
Drug Therapy
Fever
Fusariosis*
Fusarium*
Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor
Granulocytes
Humans
Immunocompromised Host
Leukemia*
Neutropenia
Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma
Rivers
Skin*
Amphotericin B
Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor