Invasive fungal infection of the central nervous system in a patient with acute myeloid leukaemia.

Abstract

Although the new intensive chemotherapeutic programs introduced recently into hematooncological therapies have led to a higher number of recoveries, persistent neutropenia favours the spread of severe infections, frequently fungal infections. Systemic fungal infections in patients treated for proliferative diseases of the hematopoietic system are characterised by a severe, progressing course and high morbidity. We present a case report that demonstrates the diagnostic problem of lesions in the central nervous system which developed following the fourth block of chemotherapy in an eight-year-old boy treated for acute myeloid leukaemia. The risk factors, high values of the inflammatory parameters and imaging results enabled us to diagnose a fungal infection of the central nervous system. A fast improvement in the clinical condition of the patient after the applied antifungal therapy and the regression of lesions in the central nervous system shown in the imaging studies confirmed our final diagnosis.