Hypomorphic CARD9 deficiency caused by p.Y91H results in adult-onset disease with variable penetrance and expressivity. Our findings establish the CARD9/RASGRF1/ERK/GM-CSF axis as critical to the pathophysiology of sCNSc.

g Candida kefyr is an emerging pathogen among patients with hematologic malignancies (HM). We performed a retrospective study at Johns Hopkins Hospital to evaluate the epidemiology of C. kefyr colonization and infection in HM patients between 2004 and 2010. Eighty-three patients were colonized and/or infected with C. kefyr, with 8 (9.6%) having invasive candidiasis (IC). The yearly incidence of C. kefyr colonization and candidemia increased over the study period (P < 0.01), particularly after 2009. In 2010, C. kefyr caused 16.7% of candidemia episodes. The monthly incidence of C. kefyr was higher during the summer throughout the study. In a cohort of patients with acute myelogenic leukemia receiving induction chemotherapy, risks for C. kefyr colonization included the summer season (odds ratio [OR], 3.1; P ‫؍‬ 0.03); administration of an azole (OR, 0.06; P < 0.001) or amphotericin B (OR, 0.35; P ‫؍‬ 0.05) was protective. Fingerprinting of 16 isolates by repetitive sequence-based PCR showed that all were different genotypes. The epidemiology of C. kefyr candidemia was evaluated in another hospital in Montreal, Canada; data confirmed higher rates of C. kefyr infection in the summer. C. kefyr appears to be increasing in HM patients, with prominent summer seasonality. These findings raise questions about the effect of antifungal agents and health care exposures (e.g., yogurt) on the epidemiology of this yeast.

Candida auris is an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast that has been systematically incorrectly identified by phenotypic methods in clinical microbiology laboratories. The Vitek 2 automated identification system (bioMérieux) recently included C. auris in its database (version 8.01). We evaluated the performance of the Vitek 2 YST ID card to identify C. auris and related species. A panel of 44 isolates of Candida species (C. auris, n = 35; Candida haemulonii, n = 5; Candida duobushaemulonii, n = 4) were tested by three different hospital-based microbiology laboratories. Among 35 isolates of C. auris, Vitek 2 yielded correct identification in an average of 52% of tested samples. Low-discrimination (LD) results with an inability to distinguish between C. auris, C. duobushaemulonii, and Candida famata were obtained in an average of 27% of samples. Incorrect identification results were obtained in an average of 21% of samples, the majority (91%) of which were reported as C. duobushaemulonii and the remaining 9% of which were reported as Candida lusitaniae/C. duobushaemulonii. The proportion of correct identification was not statistically different across different centers (P = 0.78). Stratification by genetic clades demonstrated that 100% (n = 8) of the strains of the South American clade were correctly identified compared to 7% (n = 10) and 0% (n = 4) from the African and East Asian clades, respectively. None of the non-auris Candida strains (n = 9) were incorrectly identified as C. auris. Our results show that the Vitek 2 (version 8.01) yeast identification system has a limited ability to correctly identify C. auris. These data suggest that an identification result for C. duobushaemulonii should warrant further testing to rule out C. auris. The overall performance of the Vitek 2 seems to differ according to C. auris genetic clade, with the South American isolates yielding the most accurate results.

PCP was mostly a late-onset disease occurring after complete course of prophylaxis particularly among patients with CMV infection or allograft rejection. PCP is associated with significant allograft loss. Extended prophylaxis targeting recipients with allograft rejection or CMV infection may reduce the risk of PCP.

We sought to describe the epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) among adult recipients of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto HSCT) within the first year after HSCT in centers with variable epidemiology of hyper-toxigenic strains. A multicenter, retrospective nested case-control study was conducted among 873 auto HSCT recipients at Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH, Baltimore, MD) and Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (HMR, Montreal, Canada) between 1/2003-12/2008. Despite center differences in the prevalence of NAP-1 strains over the time period (21-43% JHH; 80-84% HMR), the 1-year incidence of CDI was similar (6.2% JHH; 5.7% HMR). The median time to infection was 11 days (interquartile range [IQR] 1 to 27). In case control analysis, the following were predictors for CDI: grade 2 or higher mucositis (odds ratio [OR]: 3.00, P=0.02) and receipt of a 4th generation cephalosporin (OR: 2.76, P=0.04). Mucositis was the strongest predictor of risk for CDI in multivariate analysis (adjusted OR [AOR]: 2.77; P=0.03). CDI is a common and early complication of auto HSCT. Treatment-related gastrointestinal mucosal damage, in addition to the potentially modifiable risk of antimicrobial exposure, influence risk for CDI early post-auto HSCT.

Mortality associated with invasive aspergillosis (IA) remains high, partly because of delayed diagnosis. Detection of microbial exoantigens, released in serum and other body fluids during infection, may help timely diagnosis. In course of IA, Aspergillus galactomannan (GM), a well established polysaccharide biomarker, is released in body fluids including urine. Urine is an abundant, safely collected specimen, well-suited for point-of-care (POC) testing, which could play an increasing role in screening for early disease. Our main objective was to demonstrate GM antigenuria as a clinically relevant biological phenomenon in IA and establish proof-of-concept that it could be translated to POC diagnosis. Utilizing a novel IgM monoclonal antibody (MAb476) that recognizes GM-like antigens from Aspergillus and other molds, we demonstrated antigenuria in an experimental animal IA model (guinea pig), as well as in human patients. In addition, we investigated the chemical nature of the urinary excreted antigen in human samples, characterized antigen detection in urine by immunoassays, described a putative assay inhibitor in urine, and indicated means of alleviation of the inhibition. We also designed and used a lateral flow immunochromatographic assay to detect urinary excreted antigen in a limited number of IA patient urine samples. In this study, we establish that POC diagnosis of IA based on urinary GM detection is feasible. Prospective studies will be necessary to establish the performance characteristics of an optimized device and define its optimal clinical use.

No abstract

Anncaliia algerae myositis is a life-threatening, emerging microsporidiosis among immunocompromised hosts. We report a case of disseminated A algerae infection in a man previously treated with alemtuzumab. Due to failure of albendazole-based therapy, fumagillin was added as a novel approach to management, with a good clinical response and patient survival.