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A 55-year-old male with diabetes mellitus is admitted with a severe infection of his face. The patient has a very high fever, is in septic shock, and the entire right face appears necrotic. What is the most likely organism?
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Teaching Points
- Mucormycosis is caused by Mucorales fungi, an opportunistic fungus. The fungi commonly infect persons with diabetes mellitus or individuals who are immunosuppressed.
- Mucorales fungi have great potential to invade the local tissues and cause rapid fulminating of the surrounding tissue.
- On microscopy, the fungus is broad-based and has a right-angle appearance. Most patients have a poor prognosis after acquiring mucormycosis.
- Mucormycosis is characterized by hyphae growing around blood vessels and can be life-threatening in patients with diabetes mellitus or those who are severely immunocompromised. "Mucormycosis" and "zygomycosis" often are used interchangeably; however, Zygomycota has been identified as polyphyletic and is not included in fungal classification systems. While zygomycosis includes Entomophthorales, mucormycosis excludes this group.
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PubMed References
| Non-sinonasal isolated facio-orbital mucormycosis - A case report., Swain SK,Sahu MC,Banerjee A,, Journal de mycologie medicale, 2018 May 14 [PubMed] |
| Opportunistic fungal infection in children and management., Lam JM,, Current opinion in pediatrics, 2018 May 15 [PubMed] |
| Breakthrough fungal infections in leukemia patients receiving isavuconazole., Rausch CR,DiPippo AJ,Bose P,Kontoyiannis DP,, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2018 May 16 [PubMed] |
| Components of a new gene family of ferroxidases involved in virulence are functionally specialized in fungal dimorphism., Navarro-Mendoza MI,Pérez-Arques C,Murcia L,Martínez-García P,Lax C,Sanchis M,Capilla J,Nicolás FE,Garre V,, Scientific reports, 2018 May 16 [PubMed] |
| [Rhinocerebral Mucormycosis]., Mertens A,Arens C,Barche D,Scheinpflug L,Scholz FG,Vielhaber S,Scherlach C,Tröger U,Geginat G,Färber J,, Laryngo- rhino- otologie, 2018 May 16 [PubMed] |
