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Incidence and prevalence of coccidioidomycosis in patients with end‐stage liver disease
Author(s) -
Blair Janis E.,
Balan Vijayan,
Douglas David D.,
Hentz Joseph G.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
liver transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.814
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1527-6473
pISSN - 1527-6465
DOI - 10.1053/jlts.2003.50125
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , liver transplantation , concomitant , liver disease , disease , transplantation , stage (stratigraphy) , surgery , paleontology , physics , optics , biology
Coccidioidomycosis is an endemic fungal infection of the desert southwestern United States. Patients with end‐stage liver disease (ESLD) have not been described as having a high rate of coccidioidal infection. We prospectively evaluated 290 patients with ESLD for liver transplantation and found that 6 of these patients )2.1%) had active coccidioidal infection at presentation. Of 184 patients listed for transplantation, 48 patients were observed for at least 1 year; among these 48 patients, new coccidioidal infection developed in 2 patients within the year, for a 1‐year incidence of 4.2%. Conversely, the incidence of coccidioidal infection in Maricopa County, Arizona in that same period was 0.04%. Awareness is needed to identify the presence of coccidioidal infection, which may be masked by symptoms and findings of ESLD. Treatment may alleviate some of the symptoms of coccidioidomycosis originally attributed to the concomitant liver disease