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S Magaldi

Publications and source records attributed to S Magaldi.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Well diffusion for antifungal susceptibility testing.

INTRODUCTION: The increasing clinical and microbiologic resistance of Candida spp. isolates to several antifungal agents is becoming a serious problem. It is now reasonable to propose the use of antifungal susceptibility testing in Candida spp. isolates from patients who have failed conventional therapy, before the selection of an empirical therapy. METHODS: One hundred and fifty eight isolates of Candida spp. were evaluated simultaneously by broth microdilution (NCCLS standard) and well diffusion testing (WD), a diffusion method similar to disc diffusion. RESULTS: According to the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test performed, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) between both methodologies for all antifungal agents tested (fluconazole, itraconazole, posaconazole, caspofungin and amphotericin B, with C. tropicalis, C. krusei, C. dubliniensis, C. guillermondii, C. parapsilosis, C. albicans and C. glabrata). A significant difference was observed when comparing well diffusion with NCCLS for fluconazole WD 80% (p=0.008) in C. glabrata, as well as WD 80% (p=0.002) and WD 50% (p=0.002) in C. albicans. CONCLUSIONS: The well diffusion test is simple, easy to reproduce, inexpensive, easy both to read and interpret, and has a good correlation to the reference NCCLS microdilution test and may represent an alternative method for antifungal drug susceptibility testing of Candida spp., mainly in laboratories with few resources.

Antifungal Agents↗

Histopathologic and histochemical characterization of calcified structures in hamsters inoculated with Paracoccidioides brasiliensis.

In pathogenicity studies of 31 Paracoccidioides brasiliensis isolates preserved using Castellani's method we intraperitoneally inoculated 104 young adult hamsters and found laminated concentric structures and calcified appearance that resembled Schaumann bodies, in 43 of them, especially in animals with apparently good condition. We characterized these structures histologically and histochemically using different stains (PAS, Grocott, haematoxylin-eosin, Von Kossa). The Von Kossa staining revealed calcium in these structures. Similar structures have been described in patients with sarcoidosis and also in hamsters inoculated with P. brasiliensis. We found no correlation between the presence of these calcifications and serum calcium levels.

Animals↗

Antifungal activity of Crotalus durissus cumanensis venom.

The susceptibility to Crotalus venom of 14 yeast and 10 mould fungal isolates was assessed. This venom was tested in a standardized well diffusion test, using 400 microg/20 microl well. The percentage of susceptibility to yeast isolates was 78.6% (> 8 mm); that for filamentous isolates was 50% (> 8 mm).

Animals↗

In vitro susceptibility of 137 Candida sp. isolates from HIV positive patients to several antifungal drugs.

Oropharyngeal candidiasis caused by various species of Candida is one of the most common infections in HIV seropositive or AIDS patients. Drug resistance among these yeasts is an increasing problem. We studied the frequency of resistance profile to fluconazole, itraconazole, ketoconazole, amphotericin B and terbinafine of 137 isolates of Candida sp. From HIV positive or AIDS patients with oropharyngeal candidiasis at Instituto de Inmunología, U.C.V. and the Hospital "Jose Ignacio Baldó", Caracas Venezuela, using the well diffusion susceptibility test (Magaldi et al.). We found that nearly 10% of C. albicans isolates were primarily fluconazole resistant, 45% of C. albicans isolates from patients with previous treatment were resistant to fluconazole, of which 93% showed cross-resistance to itraconazole, and even about 30% of C. tropicalis (n = 13) were resistant to fluconazole and/or itraconazole. To this respect, several recent reports have been described antifungal cross-resistance among azoles. Therefore, we consider that C. tropicalis should be added to the growing list of yeast in which antifungal drug resistance is common. This report could be useful for therapeutic aspect in AIDS patients with oral candidiasis.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗

"In vitro" antifungal activity of protease inhibitors.

In the last five years, as HAART has become standard therapy in HIV seropositive or AIDS patients, changes have been noted in the numbers and types of opportunistic fungal infections in these cohorts of patients. Particularly, oropharyngeal candidiasis have become rare in HIV infected patients since the introduction of new anti-HIV drugs of the protease inhibitors type. At the Immunology Institute of the Universidad Central de Venezuela the most frequent protease inhibitors (PIs) used for the treatment of these patients have been: Nelfinavir (Viracept, Roche), Indinavir (Crixivan Merck), Ritonavir (Norvir, Abbott), Saquinavir (Fortovase, Roche). Recently, we observed that recurrent candidiasis was less frequent and no Candida could be isolated in our patients. A direct relation to the PIs was suspected. In order to assess the "in vitro" antifungal activity of the afore mentioned protease inhibitors on Candida sp., we used both the well diffusion test and the NCCLS broth microdilution test to assay 100 Candida sp. isolates from HIV seropositive or AIDS patients with syntomatic oropharyngeal Candida infection. In general, the data obtained with the well diffusion test were in agreement with those obtained by the broth microdilution test. All 100 isolates were susceptible to Saquinavir and 32 were susceptible to Indinavir using the NCCLS microdilution test, while 97 were susceptible to Saquinavir and 52 to Indinavir by the well diffusion test. From 17 C. albicans resistant to fluconazole, all were susceptible to Saquinavir by the NCCLS micromethod and 16 by the well diffusion test. Our results showed anticandidal activity "in vitro" of PIs, mainly Saquinavir.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗