A case of disseminated Phialophora parasitica infection

The numbers and kinds of fungi that are known to cause human mycoses have increased greatly in the past decade. We report the first case (to our knowledge) of disseminated Phialophora parasitica infection. The patient, a 92-year-old woman, had known chronic subcutaneous infection with P parasitica. The systemic nature of her disease was diagnosed at autopsy, when the organism was identified in cultures obtained from a thrombus within an abdominal aortic aneurysm and was also histologically demonstrated within sections obtained from the aneurysm wall.