No abstract

Cryosurgery with liquid nitrogen is an option in the treatment of chromomycosis.

A sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay is described for paracoccidioidomycosis serodiagnosis, with antigen represented by filtrates from Paracoccidioides brasiliensis cultures. Cross-reactivities were, however, observed with sera from patients with other mycoses such as histoplasmosis, lobomycosis, cryptococcosis, candidiasis, and sporotrichosis. These cross-reactions did not occur when we used as antigen Yarzabal E2 component prepared by affinity fractionation of the culture filtrates. Specific results could also be obtained with the whole filtrate antigen when sera were absorbed with Histoplasma capsulatum yeast and mycelial components. Besides a very high sensitivity (100% of the 69 cases of paracoccidioidomycosis tested), this assay showed no false-positive results for the 206 non-paracoccidioidomycosis sera studied, including those from patients with other mycotic diseases.

Paracoccidioidomycosis is a fungal infection rarely described in immunodeficient patients. We report a severe case of pulmonary paracoccidioidomycosis in a renal transplant recipient and demonstrate deficiencies of in vitro lymphocytic transformation assays, skin hypersensitivity tests, as well as low levels of antibodies to Paracoccidioides brasiliensis.

Chromoblastomycosis (CBM) is a chronic subcutaneous mycosis caused by a group of different dematiaceous fungi, first described by Rudolph in 1914. In Brazil there is a clear predominance of Fonsecaea pedrosoi. Sixty sera samples obtained from patients with F. pedrosoi-caused CBM were analysed. Sera obtained from 36 sporothricosis (SPT) patients, 34 cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) patients and from 48 blood donors (HBD) were used as control. F. pedrosoi metabolic antigen was obtained from F. pedrosoi sample no. 884 (Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo Collection). IE reaction disclosed an anodic migrating arch, which was eluted and used as antigen. Both metabolic and eluate F. pedrosoi antigens were submitted to SDS-PAGE and two fractions, weighing approximately 54 and 66 kDa were identified. The 66-kDa fraction reacted against 43 of 60 CBM (71.7%) sera samples and was recognized by 10 SPT and eight CL sera (15.3%). No reactivity was observed against HBD sera. The 54-kDa fraction reacted against 58 of 60 CBM sera (96.7% sensitivity) and was not recognized by HBD, SPT nor CL sera (100% specificity). Such high sensitivity and specificity levels suggest this antigenic fraction is immunodominant and might prove a useful tool for further studies on F. pedrosoi-caused CBM.