BACKGROUND In a major clinical trial, caspofungin was as efficacious as liposomal amphotericin B (LAmB) for empirical therapy in febrile neutropenia. The current study sought to evaluate the economic impact of caspofungin as compared with LAmB for febrile neutropenia in Australia. METHODS A decision analytic model was developed to capture the downstream consequences of the empirical antifunga...

Mutations in two specific regions of the Fks1 subunit of 1,3-beta-D-glucan synthase are known to confer decreased caspofungin susceptibility on Candida spp. Clinical isolates of Candida spp. (404 Candida albicans, 62 C. tropicalis, and 21 C. krusei isolates) sent to the French National Reference Center were prospectively screened for susceptibility to caspofungin in vitro by the broth microdilu...

Candida albicans cells with increased cell wall chitin have reduced echinocandin susceptibility in vitro. The aim of this study was to investigate whether C. albicans cells with elevated chitin levels have reduced echinocandin susceptibility in vivo. BALB/c mice were infected with C. albicans cells with normal chitin levels and compared to mice infected with high-chitin cells. Caspofungin thera...

BACKGROUND Treatment with amphotericin B is highly effective in histoplasmosis. Caspofungin has shown good activity against Candida and Aspergillus spp. In vitro studies have demonstrated that Histoplasma capsulatum is inhibited by caspofungin. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of caspofungin in the treatment of histoplasmosis in an animal experimental mod...

BACKGROUND The standard caspofungin treatment regimen (50 mg/day after a 70-mg dose on day 1) is effective and well tolerated for the treatment of invasive candidiasis, but experience with higher doses of caspofungin is limited. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of caspofungin at 3 times the standard dosing regimen. METHODS Patients with proven invasive candidiasis were randomized to recei...

Candida infections represent a major threat in neonatal intensive care units. This is the first prospective study to obtain caspofungin plasma levels and safety data for neonates and very young infants. Patients of <3 months of age receiving intravenous amphotericin B for documented or highly suspected candidiasis were enrolled in a single-dose (n = 6) or subsequent multiple-dose (n = 12) panel...

BACKGROUND Neutropenia is an indicator of poor prognosis in patients with fungal infections. All available clinical trial experience from the caspofungin development program was reviewed to ascertain the efficacy of caspofungin in neutropenic patients with documented invasive aspergillosis (IA) or invasive candidiasis (IC). METHODS The review was limited to neutropenic patients with proven IC...

The echinocandin antifungal drug caspofungin at high concentrations reverses the growth inhibition of Aspergillus fumigatus, a phenomenon known as the "paradoxical effect," which is not consistently observed with other echinocandins (micafungin and anidulafungin). Previous studies of A. fumigatus revealed the loss of the paradoxical effect following pharmacological or genetic inhibition of calc...

Abstract Plasma polymers from glycidol vapors are of interest for direct covalent grafting molecules bearing amine or thiol groups. The question whether pulsed plasma operation might lead to a higher surface density epoxide groups and grafted is studied using the antifungal drug caspofungin. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy Time flight‐secondary ions mass spectrometry analysis followed by caspo...

OBJECTIVES Amoebic keratitis is difficult to treat, without total efficacy in some patients because of cysts that are less susceptible than trophozoites to the usual treatments. We investigated here the in vitro effectiveness of caspofungin, a new antifungal, against three species of Acanthamoeba. METHODS Trophozoites and cysts of Acanthamoeba castellanii, Acanthamoeba culbertsoni and Acantha...