Trichosporon cutaneum fungemia in patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia and measurement of serum D-arabinitol, Candida antigen (CAND-TEC), and beta-D-glucan.

Two patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia are described who developed fungemia due to Trichosporon cutaneum. Fungemia occurred at the leukocyte nadir following the administration of anti-cancer chemotherapy. One patient was cured but the other died. Both patients received prednisolone continuously and had central venous catheters in place for parenteral hyperalimentation. T. cutaneum isolates were resistant to 5-fluorocytosine and moderately susceptible to fluconazole. One case was complicated by endophthalmitis due to T. cutaneum; this is the second report of such a complication in the world. We investigated the serum levels of beta-D-glucan, D-arabinitol, and Candida antigen (CAND-TEC); beta-D-glucan was elevated in both cases, which suggests that simultaneous measurements of these laboratory values are useful for the diagnosis and possibly for the evaluation of therapy for this fungal infection.