Blastomycosis arthritis

Blastomycosis.

Blastomycosis is an endemic fungal infection due to Blastomyces dermatitidis that most commonly causes pneumonia; but the organism can disseminate to any organ system, most commonly the skin, bones/joints, and genitourinary tract. Both immunocompetent and immunocompromised persons can be infected, but more severe disease occurs in the immunocompromised. Blastomycosis can be diagnosed by culture...

Disseminated blastomycosis.

A 26-year-old veiled Saudi-Arabian woman presented with hemoptysis, and multiple nodules and abscesses. A skin biopsy specimen revealed yeast forms consistent with Blastomyces dermatitidis. Fungal cultures from bronchoscopy and skin specimens also grew B dermatitidis. She was treated with oral itraconazole (200 mg twice a day). Both lung and skin lesions showed improvement within 6 weeks.

North American blastomycosis.

N ORTH American blastomycosis (Gilchrist’s disease) is a granulomatous, infectious disease caused by the fungus, Blastomyces dermatitidis (Gilchrist and Stokes, 1898). The malady, in its cutaneous form, was first described by Gilchrist’ in 1894. A few years later, together with Stokes, he was able to isolate and culture the causative organism which he designated as B. dermatitibis.23 The first ...

North American blastomycosis.

Thoracic Blastomycosis and Empyema

Blastomycosis is endemic in river valley areas of the southeastern and Midwestern United States. Pulmonary manifestations include chronic cough and pleuritic pain. Radiographic appearance of the infection can mimic bronchogenic lung carcinoma. Pleural effusion is rarely associated with this pulmonary infection, and empyema has not been previously reported. We report a case of pulmonary and pleu...