Intravenous and intrathecal miconazole therapy for systemic mycoses.

Ten patients with systemic mycoses, including five with fungal meningitis, were treated with intravenously or intrathecally administered miconazole, or both. Minimal inhibitory concentrations of miconazole for clinical isolates of Coccidioides immitis, Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans were less than 0.6 microg per ml. Except for pruritus of variable degrees, the drug was well tolerated both intravenously and intrathecally by all patients. No measurable impairment of renal, hepatic or bone marrow function was observed in patients after 4(1/2) months of intravenous therapy. No hematological or biochemical abnormalities and no evidence of recurrent coccidioidal osteomyelitis were observed in 16 months of follow-up in our first patient treated with this drug. Miconazole is apparently an effective antifungal drug of low toxicity and is a potentially useful agent for treatment of human systemic mycoses.