Interestingly, invasive infections with generally less virulent, fluconazole non-susceptible species such as C. glabrata and C. krusei decreased during the final 5 years of this study, offset by corresponding increases in C. albicans and C. tropicalis infections. Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor This trend was consistent with culture-based surveillance studies of candidemia performed at our institution and others that identified C. tropicalis as a common Candida spp. associated with breakthrough infection in

haematological malignancy patients on echinocandin therapy.[30, 33, 34] In summary, IFIs remain a common infection in patients with haematological malignancies that are frequently disseminated and still underdiagnosed ante mortem. Although the prevalence of aspergillosis has decreased significantly over the last 5 years, non-Aspergillus moulds such as Mucorales, as well as mixed infections have remained stable or slightly increased accounting for a greater percentage of infections. Therefore, empiric or pre-emptive approaches to antifungal therapy for this

population should be adapted to this changing epidemiology, as well as enhancing efforts towards their earlier ante mortem diagnosis through molecular methods. Finally, it is important to reverse the declining trend of medical Gefitinib autopsy, or we risk losing one of our most important definitive tools for understanding the epidemiology of fungal disease in this highly vulnerable population. No financial support was sought for this study. None of the authors have disclosures or potential conflicts of interest related to this work. Dimitrios Kontoyiannis wishes

to acknowledge his support through the Francis King Black Endowed Professorship. “
“Penicillium marneffei is an intracellular pathogen; the mechanism allowing it to survive under oxidative stress remains unclear. For a better understanding of the response of P. marneffei to oxidative Sinomenine stress, the change in ultrastructure of this fungus before and after treatment with hydrogen peroxide was examined. A bamboo rat isolate and human isolate of P. marneffei were cultured on PDA at 25 °C and on BHI agar at 37 °C for 7 days respectively, with and without hydrogen peroxide; the morphology of strains was examined by optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. While comparing the human isolate with the bamboo rat isolate cultured without hydrogen peroxide, it showed no significant difference in ultrastructure. Microbodies were seen under transmission electron microscope in the yeast form, but could not be seen in mould form. After the strains were cultured with hydrogen peroxide, the mould form produced more rose red pigment; organelles of the fungal cells had been involved at different levels. Furthermore, the mould form of the human isolate with decreased conidia production and the yeast form with apoptosis could be observed.