A review of German Scedosporium prolificans cases from 1993 to 2007.

Scedosporium prolificans is one of the most life-threatening fungal opportunistic pathogens due to its high resistance to common systemic antifungal agents. While a close relative of Pseudallescheria boydii, S. prolificans has a more limited geographic range being primarily found in Australia, USA and Spain.

[Keratomycosis due to Cylindrocarpon lichenicola].

Two independent males acquired keratomycosis at a few months interval. The culturally proven pathogen was Cylindrocarpon lichenicola (C. Massal) D.

[Histoplasmosis group disease in bat researchers returning from Cuba].

Case History: Four males (age 25 to 40 years) and one female (age 25) were admitted to our hospital almost simultaneously with symptoms of fever up to 38 degrees C, dry cough, thoracodynia, dyspnoea, myalgia and arthralgia. All patients belonged to a team of eight German bat researchers who had returned from Cuba 10 days before, where they had investigated bats in caves. Another member of the team had only mild histoplasmosis and was followed in our outpatient clinic.

Efficacy and tolerability of terbinafine 1% topical solution used for 1 week compared with 4 weeks clotrimazole 1% topical solution in the treatment of interdigital tinea pedis: a randomized, double-blind, multi-centre, 8-week clinical trial.

In this double-blind clinical trial 429 patients (217 terbinafine and 212 clotrimazole) were randomized to receive twice daily terbinafine 1% topical solution for 1 week followed by a vehicle application for 3 weeks, or 1% clotrimazole solution for 4 weeks. Patients were evaluated clinically and mycologically at baseline and then at weeks one, two, four (end of treatment), and eight (end of follow-up). To be evaluable the patient needed to have a positive culture for a dermatophyte and positive KOH microscopy and a clinical diagnosis of tinea pedis (interdigital type) at baseline.

Fluconazole prophylaxis in patients with head and neck tumours undergoing radiation and radiochemotherapy.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence of Candida stomatitis and resulting interruptions in radiation and radiochemotherapy in 50 patients suffering from squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck region receiving fluconazole (100 mg d-1) in comparison with a historical control group (n = 50) without specific prophylaxis. Twenty of the control patients (40%) demonstrated Candida stomatitis, with seven of them (14%) requiring interruptions in anticancer therapy. In contrast, none of the patients with fluconazole had evidence of Candida stomatitis (P = 0.