Fungal infections.

Abstract

Fungal infections have increased in frequency in the last decades because of the growing number of immunocompromised patients who survive longer periods of time than in the past, the widespread use of immunosuppressive drugs, a large aging population with increased numbers of malignancies, and the spread of AIDS. Although fungi are present everywhere, some mycoses predominate in the tropics, not only in view of warm temperature and humid climate, which favor their growth, but also because of inadequate hygienic and working conditions brought about by poverty. Mycotic diseases in the brain are usually secondary to infections elsewhere in the body, usually the lungs, less often from other extracranial sites, and in the vast majority of the cases spread via blood circulation. Only occasionally they result from direct extensions from infections of the sinuses or bone, and less frequently from prosthetic heart valves. Candida may be endogenous in origin, inhabiting the digestive tract. Most fungi cause basal meningitis or intraparenchymal abscesses. Direct extension from the cribriform plate cause necro-hemorrhagic lesions in the base of the frontal lobe. Although fungi are common in our environment, few are pathogenic. In this paper mycotic infections are divided into opportunistic and pathogenic; although most of the latter have also been described in immunosuppressed patients, some of those caused by opportunistic organisms, have also occurred in the absence of predisposing factors.