Cutaneous aspergillosis complicating pyoderma gangrenosum

Isolation of filamentous fungi from public telephones of the Metropolitan region of the city of Recife, PE, Brazil

“…The taxa mentioned in specialized literature as pathogenic to humans and animals were also isolated. Among them, Aspergillus flavus causes allergic bronchial infection, otitis, sinusitis, and skin lesions (16,19); Fusarium solani, causes cutaneous infections and nail lesion (16,22,28); Aspergillus niger, Aureobasidium pullulans, Chrysosporium keratinophilum, Cladosporium cladosporioides, C. sphaerospermum and Phoma eupyrena, are also cutaneous infection agents (1,4,12,13,15,16,18,21); Aspergillus restrictus is a pulmonary infection agent (20); Penicillium chrysogenum is mentioned as a keratitis and endophthalmitis agent (26,28); Sporothrix schenckii is the sporotrichosis ethyological agent (16,22,27,31); Trichophyton tonsurans is considered to cause dermatophytosis, such as tinea capitis, corporis, pedis and onychomycosis (10,16,21). Due to the lack of maintenance or inadequate cleaning of public telephones, the existing fungi in these telephones may cause mycosis in the users as these facilities are used by people from different social classes and variable habits, both healthy and immunocompromised people.…”

Solitary embolic cutaneous aspergillosis in the immunocompromised patient with acute myelogenous leukemia – a propos another case caused by Aspergillus flavus

“…Primary cutaneous aspergillosis (PCA) almost exclusively takes place in association with indwelling catheters, arm boards and tape, although it has also been reported in a patient with pyoderma gangrenosum where skin served as a portal of entry 9,10 . These lesions do not have reported anatomic sites of predilection but rather develop at the site of skin trauma, usually in immunocompromised patients, particularly those with hematologic and lymphoreticular malignancies 3 .…”

Cutaneous aspergillosis

“…In addition, otherwise healthy hosts can develop cutaneous aspergillosis in surgical wounds (3,8,40), by traumatic inoculation (5,12,13,27,41,42), or by exposure to high spore counts in occupations such as farming (10,19,61,64), although such infections are rare. In general, burn victims, neonates, and solid-organ transplant recipients develop cutaneous inoculation after prolonged local skin injury, whereas bone marrow transplant recipients tend to develop secondary cutaneous aspergillosis lesions either from contiguous extension from infected structures underlying the skin, such as the paranasal sinuses, nasal cavity, or orbit, or from hematogenously disseminated embolic lesions.…”