MONILEMIA ASSOCIATED WITH TOXIC PURPURA

Abstract

Several cases of infections of the blood stream with closely related strains of Monilia (e. g., Candida parakrusei), all occurring in drug addicts, have been found recently. A case of subacute endocarditis with systemic mycosis¹ and another case, almost identical except that there was cerebral involvement,² have been reported, with detailed autopsy observations. The organism in both cases was identified as C. (Monilia) parakrusei. In the present case, this organism was cultured from the blood stream of a patient, a drug addict, four days before his death. The clinical course and the autopsy observations were quite different from those in the 2 cases previously reported and may have been due to an unrelated, coincidental idiosyncrasy to a drug. Nevertheless, close study of the clinical record failed to rule out the possibility that the whole picture was one of invasion of the blood stream by C. (M.) parakrusei, and