Diagnosis of Torulopsis glabrata infection. Successful treatment of two cases

Abstract

Two patients with T. glabrata fungemia were cured. One, an elderly man with cancer, diabetes, and Pseudomonas urinary tract infection, had recieved many antibiotics. His cure was attributed to amphotericin B therapy. The other patient was pregnant, and the source of the fungemia was never detected; her cure was associated with the termination of pregnancy. With this method of laboratory identification of T. glabrata and increased awareness of the potential pathogenicity of the so-called opportunistic fungi on the part of both the clinical microbiologist and the clinician, more cases of T. glabrata infection will be recognized, particularly among patients who are debilitated or who have altered host defenses.