South American blastomycosis, Lutz's disease; a contribution to knowledge of its pathogenesis.

Abstract

FOUR YEARS ago I started a systematic search for Paracoccidioides brasiliensis Almeida, 1930, in the teeth and periodontal tissues of brasiliensis Almeida, 1930, in the teeth and periodontal tissues of patients with South American blastomycosis (Lutz's disease). This study was undertaken in an effort to try to explain how the parasite in this disease gets into the organism with localizations, apparently primarily lymphatic, which simulate the Hodgkin-Sternberg disease. I started from the supposition that in some cases, and especially those in which the disease apparently begins in the suprahyoid, preauricular and retroauricular lymph nodes, the penetration of the fungus could take place by way of the teeth and periodontal tissues. Two years ago1I succeeded in finding P. brasiliensis in a granuloma of a carious tooth in a woman in whom the disease had apparently begun in the submandibular lymph nodes and in a retroauricular lymph node. The