56 Colonization by Rasamsonia argillacea in cystic fibrosis patients: A two-year retrospective study

Abstract

Objective Rasamsonia is a new genus which comprises both thermotolerant Talaromyces and thermophilic Geosmithia species. Rasamsonia argillacea (RA) has recently been reported as the cause of invasive mycosis in human chronic granulomatous disease and also as airway colonizer in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). The aim of this work is to follow patients colonized by emerging fungus Rasamsonia and study their clinical characteristics and conditions. Methods Over a two years period (2013–2014), seven out of the 798 CF patients, followed at Milan centre, showed at least one positive culture for Rasamsonia . RA was identified macroscopically and microscopically by lactic blue stain. Molecular biology analysis on RA strains will be carried out. Results No correlation between RA colonization and patient sex (4F, 3M) was found. Six patients carried at least one copy of mutated allele DF508. Five patients received antimycotic oral therapy (4 itraconazole and 1 voriconazole) before RA recovery. Two out of the patients (both treated with itraconazole) were intermittently colonized with RA. One of patients was also chronically colonized with Scedosporium apiospermum. Pulmonary function (FEV1) remained substantially unvaried. Conclusion All patients were chronically colonized also by various bacteria species: probably the presence of bacteria and the resulting inflammatory response can predispose CF airways to RA acquisition. Further studies are needed to asses the possible association between genotype of patients and colonization by RA, whether antimycotic administration could be a risk factor for RA acquisition and to investigate the RA impact on pulmonary function.