Paracoccidioidomycosis: evaluation of treatment and patient profile.

Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is a fungal disease, chronic and endemic, especially in Latin America.1 Aiming to acquire more information about the effectiveness of the treatment employed, this study aimed to describe the profiles of patients with paracoccidioidomycosis and compare treatments used in patients with PCM cared for at the Clinic of Tropical Medicine of the “Conjunto Hospitalar de Sorocaba” (CHS) regarding efficacy, safety and adherence to treatment. The present study evaluated treatment used and the profile of 45 patients with PCM diagnosis. We conducted a retrospective, epidemiological, quantitative, cross-sectional and observational study through analysis of data from medical records of 45 patients diagnosed with PCM. We found a patient profile very similar to that described in the literature, i.e., adult men (77.7%), aging 51.5 years.2 Regarding occupational activity, as in other studies, patients were mostly farmers (57.7%) or civil construction workers (11.1%).2 Three treatments evaluated were: trimoxazole {1600 + 800 mg/day} (SXT), amphotericin B {1 mg/kg/day} followed by trimoxazole for maintenance {1600 + 800 mg/day} (SXT + ANPH), and itraconazole {200 mg/day} (ITZ). To compare the treatments efficacy, each drug regimen was associated with clinical improvement (in days) defined as the absence of signs and symptoms and overall treatment time (in months) defined as a negative serology. The mean time to clinical improvement showed no difference between the three tested treatments (p = 0.714). Table 1 shows the results. Regarding the overall treatment time, the group treated with SXT finished treatment with medical discharge in 15.2 months. For the ANPH + SXT group, mean time was 13.3