[Mycotic infection in immunosuppressed patients. An anatomopathologic study]

Mycotic infections are a frequent and often severe complication in the immunosuppressed patient. A review of autopsy findings in 54 cases with gross, histologic and mycologic studies was undertaken among immunocompromised patients after chemotherapy or allogenic bone marrow transplantation: fungal infections were either localized especially in lungs and gastrointestinal tract, or disseminated. Fungi were various: principally Candida and Aspergillus, but also Fusarium, Torulopsis and Trichosporon. In acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (11 autopsy cases), mycotic infections appeared different. Oral and esophageal candidiasis could be found, but cryptococcosis and histoplasmosis were the major generalized mycosis. This study suggests that fungal infections are not the same in patients treated by chemotherapy or bone marrow transplantation, and in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.