Mucormycosis has emerged as an important opportunistic infection, especially in severely immunosuppressed hosts. The evolving epidemiology, immunopathogenesis, molecular virulence studies, early diagnosis, and pitfalls in designing clinical studies of mucormycosis are discussed in this article.

Zygomycosis is an infection due to the fungi Zygomycetes, which, despite being ubiquitous, rarely cause disease in humans. Predisposing conditions include diabetic ketoacidosis, hematologic malignancies, iron overload, multiorgan failure, chronic liver disease, renal failure, metabolic acidosis and immunosuppressed state [1–3]. Zygomycosis can rarely occur in pregnancy as a complication of diab...

The authors describe a case of entomophthoromycosis in a previously healthy patient, who presented with an abscess in the right buttock. After surgical drainage it evolved into a retroperitoneal tumor. The patient improved clinically after resection of the mass and ketoconazole treatment. The histopathological analysis showed the Splendore-Hoeppli phenomenon, suggesting Basidiobolus ranarum inf...

A 12 yr old girl with type 1 diabetes presented in ketoacidosis and consolidation of left lower lobe along with left pleural effusion. A diagnosis of mucormycosis was made on smear examination of an exudative pleural aspirate. Left lower lobe lobectomy was performed along with drainage of pleural collection with tube thoracostomy. Worsening respiratory distress postoperatively due to increase i...

A 50-year-old non-diabetic woman was admitted for hemorrhagic diathesis. Laboratory examination indicated that she was suffering from t(15;17)-positive acute promyelocytic leukemia associated with disseminated intravascular coagulation. She was started on all-trans retinoic acid plus idarubicin and cytarabine. However, due to the development of retinoic acid syndrome, all-trans retinoic acid wa...

We report a case of pulmonary zygomycosis in an adult male diabetic patient who presented with fever and altered sensorium initially and later developed streaky haemoptysis. Bronchoscopy showed picture of necrotizing pneumonia. Sputum was negative for fungal elements on admission but later bronchial wash and repeat sputum samples were positive by microscopy and culture showed growth of Rhizopus...

Three isolates of zygomycetes belonging to two different genera (Rhizopus oryzae and Absidia corymbifera) were used to produce a systemic infection in neutropenic mice. On days -2 and -1 and at 2 h prior to infection, the mice received either posaconazole (POS) at doses ranging from 20 to 80 mg/kg of body weight/day or amphotericin B (AMB) at 1 mg/kg/day. Antifungal drug efficacy was assessed b...