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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 2006, p. 2458-2464, Vol. 44, No. 7
0095-1137/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.00356-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Candida guilliermondii Fungemia in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies

Corrado Girmenia,^1* Giampaolo Pizzarelli,² Francesco Cristini,³ Francesco Barchiesi,⁴ Elisabetta Spreghini,⁴ Giorgio Scalise,⁴ and Pietro Martino¹

Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Cellulari ed Ematologia, Università La Sapienza, Rome,¹ Pfizer Italia SpA, Rome,² Clinica di Malattie Infettive, Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Morfologiche, Università di Udine, Udine,³ Istituto di Malattie Infettive e Medicina Pubblica, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy⁴

Received 17 February 2006/ Returned for modification 10 April 2006/ Accepted 6 May 2006

The microbiological, clinical, and epidemiological features of most non-Candida albicans Candida species are well known, but much less is known about species such as Candida guilliermondii, an uncommon pathogen causing a variety of deep-seated infections in immunocompromised hosts. To characterize C. guilliermondii fungemia in patients with hematological malignancies and its susceptibility to antifungal drugs, all cases of C. guilliermondii fungemia diagnosed in our department between 1983 and 2005 were retrospectively analyzed and the literature was reviewed. C. guilliermondii caused 29/243 (11.7%) candidemia episodes diagnosed during the study period. Central venous catheters were the documented sources of candidemia in 19/29 episodes (65.5%), and invasive tissue infections were documented in 2 (6.9%). In the remaining eight, the catheter was not removed and the source of the fungemia remained obscure. Seven episodes ended in death, but only one could be attributed to invasive C. guilliermondii infection. Molecular typing data reveal no evidence of common infection sources. Isolates displayed high rates of in vitro susceptibility to amphotericin B (100%), voriconazole (95%), and fluconazole (90%) and lower rates of in vitro susceptibility to flucytosine (86%), itraconazole (76%), and caspofungin (33%). Our literature review confirms that C. guilliermondii is a significantly more frequent cause of candidemia among cancer patients compared with the general hospital population. It accounted for <1% of the total number of Candida bloodstream isolates reported in the articles we reviewed, with higher rates in Europe (1.4%) and Asia (1.8%) compared with North America (0.3%).

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Cellulari ed Ematologia, University La Sapienza of Rome, Via Benevento 6, 00161 Rome, Italy. Phone: 39-06-857951. Fax: 39-06-44241984. E-mail: girmenia{at}bce.uniroma1.it.

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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 2006, p. 2458-2464, Vol. 44, No. 7
0095-1137/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.00356-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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