, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease (CD) presents a wide genetic and phenotypic diversity that is classified into seven lineages or discrete typing units (DTU: TcI to TcVI and Tcbat). Although isolates and strains that belong to a particular group can share some attributes, such as geographic distribution, others like growth rate, cell tropism, and response to treatment can be highly variable. In addition, studies that test new trypanocidal drugs are frequently conducted on strains maintained for a long time in axenic culture, resulting in changes in parasite virulence and other important features.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF, the causal agent of Chagas disease, is a parasite able to infect different types of host cells and to persist chronically in the tissues of human and animal hosts. These qualities and the lack of an effective treatment for the chronic stage of the disease have contributed to the durability and the spread of the disease around the world. There is an urgent necessity to find new therapies for Chagas disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis a dematiaceous fungus with yeast-like and hyphal growth states that may cause cutaneous and visceral infections. Recently, E. dermatitidis has been linked to central line associated blood stream infection (CLABSI), probably due to its ability to produce extracellular polysaccharides and grow as biofilm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGATA2 deficiency is a genetic disorder caused by inherited or sporadic haploinsufficient mutations in the GATA2 gene. Patients have abnormalities in hematopoiesis, lymphangiogenesis and immunity; encompassing a broad range of clinical syndromes, mainly characterized by monocytopenia, B and NK cell cytopenia, severe or recurrent infections, and a high risk of developing myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We report a case of an Argentinean woman who presented with multiple opportunistic infections as her first manifestation of GATA2 deficiency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTranscatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an alternative treatment for severe aortic valve stenosis (AS) in patients with prohibitive risk for surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR). Prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) is a rare complication of this relatively novel procedure and current guidelines do not include specific recommendations for its treatment. We report a case of PVE due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa after TAVI that required SAVR, with successful outcome.
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