Fourteen patients (23.3%) developed Pneumocystis pneumonia. Eleven patients had a positive IFA but only nine were positive by cytological staining. Sixteen patients had a positive detection of P. jiroveci by PCR and nested-PCR. Thirteen of these patients were considered as having a definite Pneumocystis pneumonia and one patient with a probable Torin 1 mw Pneumocystis pneumonia. Five other patients had a positive detection only by nested-PCR. These patients were classified as no Pneumocystis pneumonia. PCR

detection of P. jiroveci is a very sensitive test and will offer a powerful technique in clinical laboratories for the routine diagnosis of Pneumocystis pneumonia. Using the nested-PCR, additional clinical cases can be diagnosed, but there is then an

obvious risk of detecting subclinical colonisation by P. jiroveci. “
“Since two large-scale, randomised studies on posaconazole prophylaxis have demonstrated a clear benefit for patients at high risk for contracting invasive fungal disease (IFD), posaconazole prophylaxis has been adopted as standard of care for this patient collective. Several years on from implementation at our institution, we wanted to evaluate its impact on the incidence and use of empirical antifungal therapy in a real-life setting. We analysed retrospectively incidence and severity of IFD in high-risk patients with prophylaxis, using a historical cohort as comparator. A total of 200 patients had either received the extended spectrum triazole posaconazole in prophylactic dosage of 200 mg tid or empirical antifungal therapy. Disease events were analysed by application of the revised EORTC/MSG definitions for IFD. Z-VAD-FMK solubility dmso Before posaconazole prophylaxis, we recorded 57/100 cases of IFD which was reduced to 28/100 with prophylaxis. The empirical use of antifungal drugs was reduced to 41% from 91% in the non-prophylaxis

cohort. Furthermore, we observed a shift in the categorisation of IFD according to EORTC/MSG criteria. Our data suggest that posaconazole was effective in reducing the rate and probability of invasive fungal disease in high-risk patients. “
“Ultraviolet-C irradiation as a method to induce the production of plant compounds with antifungal properties was investigated in the leaves of 18 plant species. A susceptibility assay Tyrosine-protein kinase BLK to determine the antifungal susceptibility of filamentous fungi was developed based on an agar dilution series in microtiter plates. UV irradiation strongly induced antifungal properties in five species against a clinical Fusarium solani strain that was responsible for an onychomycosis case that was resistant to classic pharmacological treatment. The antifungal properties of three additional plant species were either unaffected or reduced by UV-C irradiation. This study demonstrates that UV-C irradiation is an effective means of modulating the antifungal activity of very diverse plants from a screening perspective.