Nosocomial fungemia due to Trichosporon asteroides:: firstly described bloodstream infection

Trichosporon spp. are oppurtunistic yeasts that cause deep-seated, mucosa-associated, and superficial infections in immunocompromised patients. It is well known that Trichosporon asteroides is mainly responsible of superficial infections and does not cause systemic infections in humans so far. In this study, we present the first case of disseminated infection due to Trichosporon asteroides in an intensive care patient. Yeast colonies were isolated from the specimens of blood, urine, aspiration fluid of the endotracheal tube and catheter tip swabs of the patient. Conventional mycological studies were not adequate for the identification of the isolate to the species level. The genetic identification of the yeast isolate was performed and the DNA sequence of the isolate exactly matched the corresponding sequence of the Trichosporon asteroides rRNA gene from the GenBank DNA database (accession numbers: AB018017, AF075513). Therefore, our isolate was identified as Trichosporon asteroides as a causative agent of deep-seated fungemia. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.