Species Other Than and : Are They Clinically Significant?

BACKGROUND

spp is a major cause of opportunistic infections in immunocompromised patients, primarily due to and . There are occasional reports of other species causing invasive human disease. However, their epidemiology and clinical significance are not fully defined. We sought to describe cases with cultures positive for species other than and .

METHODS

A retrospective descriptive analysis of clinical and laboratory data of patients with cultures growing species other than and from November 2011 to February 2019 was performed. Three Mayo Clinic sites in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota were included.

RESULTS

From 176 cases with a culture growing spp, 54 patients (30%) had a culture for other than and in the study time frame. The most common species were , , and . The organisms were isolated and identified in culture of bronchoalveolar lavage (11), skin (11), urine (7), oral (4), sinus (3), intraoperative soft tissue (3), sputum (2), synovial fluid (2), cerebrospinal fluid (2), and intravenous catheter (2), among others (7).Only 8 (15%) cases were considered to be potentially pathogenic, with 1 case of invasive disease. Antifungal treatment was fluconazole, itraconazole, and griseofulvin, for a mean systemic antifungal duration of 42 days.

CONCLUSIONS

This large series of patients with spp other than and suggests that these species rarely cause clinically significant infection in humans. Only 1 case of invasive disease was found.