A fatal case of Trichosporon asahii fungemia and pneumonia in a kidney transplant recipient during caspofungin treatment

Abstract

Mei-fang Yang,1,2 Hai-nv Gao,1,2 Lan-juan Li1,2 1State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University; 2Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China Abstract: Trichosporon asahii is an emerging opportunistic pathogen that is life-threatening particularly for immunosuppressed patients. Only a few studies have described Trichosporon infection in kidney transplant recipients. This study reports a 67-year-old male kidney transplant recipient who developed fatal fungemia and pneumonia caused by T. asahii during caspofungin treatment. Although funguria is benign, kidney transplant recipients are still at risk of T. asahii fungemia and invasive T. asahii infection even if they are under antifungal therapy, particularly echinocandins. Keywords: funguria, organ transplant, opportunistic infection, invasive fungal infection, antifungal therapy