Mycotic keratitis due to Engyodontium album: First case report from India

Abstract

at the centre of the pupillary area of size 7 mm × 8 mm and fluorescent stain was positive. No superficial or deep vascularisation was seen. Corneal sensations were decreased at the centre of the papillary area. On anterior chamber examination, depth was normal and hypopyon was present. On direct ophthalmoscopy, the media was hazy and fundus details were not seen. Based on these findings, the diagnosis of hypopyon fungal corneal ulcer with endophthalmitis was made. Corneal scrapping was obtained by using Bard Parker knife no. 15 for direct microscopic examination and culture.Mycology work-up: A 10%-KOH mount showed hyaline septate hyphae [ Figure 1a]. Gram stain was negative for bacteria, and wet mount was negative for cysts of acanthamoeba. In Calcoflour white stain, apple green septate hyphae were seen. Corneal scrapings were inoculated on a plate of SDA with chloramphenicol and incubated at 25°C in BOD and on sheep blood agar at 37°C. On SDA plate, white floccose colonies were seen with colourless reverse within 3 days [ Figure 1b and c].Microscopic examination of slide culture of the white floccose colonies showed thin hyaline septate hyphae. Conidiophores were ascending bearing Abstract Engyodontium album is a rare and an unusual human pathogen. It is a common inhabitant of waste and moist material and frequently isolated from substrates such as paper, jute, linen and painted walls. This fungus grew within 3 days on SDA with chloramphenicol from corneal scrapping of a 70-year-old male farmer with a history of trauma by unknown vegetative matter. The fungus can be confused with Tritirachium sp and Beauveria sp.

Isolation of an obscure fungus, Parengyodontium album, from the blood of a severely neutropenic patient: The first reported case from Malaysia

“…Although we utilized ITS sequencing to authenticate our isolate's identity, 28S nuclear ribosomal DNA and the β-tubulin gene may also serve as good DNA markers for molecular identification [1]. Thus, despite its rarity, P. album is not so 'obscure' after all, as it had already been wreaking havoc as Engyodontium album, by being implicated in, among others, infective endocarditis (in the USA), fungemia (in Brazil), mycotic keratitis (in India) and brain abscess (in Germany) [2][3][4]. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to report a case of P. album infection from Malaysia.…”

“…Nonetheless, the clearance of fungemia recorded in our patient lends support for AmB usage in P. album infections. There was a case of mycotic keratitis from India that was successfully managed with AmB (although it was co-administered with fluconazole) [3].…”

“…It can also be found on a wide range of substrates such as jute, paper, and linen [2]. P. album secretes extracellular enzymes (namely proteinase and keratinolase), which cements its role as a pathogen [3]. Its significance as a human pathogen is further augmented by its propensity to be resistant to antifungal agents, most notably to fluconazole and flucytosine [1].…”

The Effect of Disease and Season to Hepatopancreas and Intestinal Mycobiota of Litopenaeus vannamei

“…Ramichloridium , Pseudozyma , Rhodotorula , and Sporobolomyces cause hematomycosis (Arendrup et al, 2014; Etienne et al, 2016). Macrophomina (Premamalini et al, 2012), Thermomyces (Sivagnanam et al, 2013), Engyodontium alum (Augustinsky et al, 1990; Thamke et al, 2015; Wu et al, 2016) can induce different types of inflammatory diseases, such as keratitis and endocarditis. Cladophialophora , Chaetomium , Curvularia , Alternaria , and Ramichloridium are not only pathogens but also cause allergic reactions in humans (McAleer et al, 1981; Cruz et al, 1997; Paredes et al, 2013).…”

Detection of human pathogenicFusariumspecies in hospital and communal sink biofilms by using a highly specific monoclonal antibody

“…This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a mAb‐based detection method has been used to track Fusarium in environmental samples. The mAb was able to differentiate Fusarium from a wide spectrum of unrelated fungi, including the human pathogens Aspergillus (Thornton and Wills, ), Candida , Geotrichum , Rhodotorula and Trichosporon (Miceli et al ., ; Davies and Thornton, ), Cyphellophora and Phialophora (Feng et al ., ), Exophiala (Zeng et al ., ), Trichoderma (Sandoval‐Denis et al ., ), Engyodontium (Macêdo et al ., ; Thamke et al ., ) and Mucor (Petrikkos et al ., ), several of which have been reported previously to inhabit biofilms in water distribution systems (Dogget, ). The 100% accuracy of the ED7 ELISA, confirmed by using ITS sequencing and TEF PCR analysis of recovered isolates, demonstrates its robustness in detecting potentially infectious Fusarium species in polymicrobial communities.…”