[Value of fluconazole in the treatment of systemic yeast infection]

20 patients (18 men, 2 women), 10 of whom were HIV +, were given Fluconazole (F) for either systemic candidiasis (13 cases), histoplasmosis (1), or cryptococcosis (6). The localization of the Candida infections (12 C. albicans, 1 C. tropicalis), were: septicemic (2), urinary (7), bronchial (2), esophageal (5), uveal (1), soft tissue (2), and 1 undetermined localization but a positive serology (1). On day (d) 1, Candidiasis patients were given an initial dose of 400 mg (for septicemia) or 200 mg (other localizations) of FIV or PO, then 200 or 100 mg per d. The length of treatment lasted from 28 to 70 d. Evolution was favorable in all the patients. 4 relapses occurred after the end of treatment: at 10 d, a septicemic candidiasis (C. tropicalis) in 1 patient who had prosthetic endocarditis; and at 1 month, digestive candidiasis in 3 HIV + patients. For the patient, infected by Histoplasma capsulatum, despite a clinical improvement, urine were still positive at day 75. The patients with cryptococcosis (5 meningitidis in the AIDS patients) and renal (1) (kidney transplant) were given on the average 400 mg a d, IV or PO (mean length 8 weeks). Only 5 patients were evaluable. For 2 of the meningitis patients with other localizations, standard treatment was instituted due to the persistence of positive cultures. For the 2 other patients, the cerebrospinal fluid (1) and the urine (1) were sterilized by the 3d week. But they relapsed 1 month after the treatment stopped. For the 18 patients evaluable, clinical and biological tolerance was good except for 1 patient with transaminases rise for which fluconazole was probably the cause.