Abstract
Purpose
To report a case of keratomycosis caused by a very rare pathogen, Myrothecium verrucaria.
Methods
This is a case report. A 53-year-old man complaint of left eye redness, irritation, intermittent pain after ashes entered his left eye. The patient was examined by slit lamp, anterior segment OCT and in vivo confocal microscopy. The HRT III-RCM image showed massive interlocking white thin lines in the cornea stroma. Corneal scrapings were collected for pathogen culture and PCR test. M. verrucaria was isolated and identified.
Results
Hourly topical natamycin (5%) and voriconazole (10 mg/ml) was given as well as intravenous fluconazole (200 mg per day). Treatment was continued with oral itraconazole, 200 mg/day, topical natamycin (5%), 4 times/day, and pranoprofen, 4 times/day. The therapy was tapered off over one and half a month. The cornea lesion healed with scar formation two months later.
Conclusions
This is the first case report of M. verrucaria keratomycosis in China. We are the first to show the characteristic of M. verrucaria on cornea with In vivo confocal microscopy. A combination treatment of tropical natamycin, voriconazole and systemic fluconazole was effective in the treatment of M. verrucaria.
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The data used or analyzed in the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Funding
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (Grant No. KY050165).
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Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conception and design: XL. Administrative support: ZD. Collection and assembly of data: SH, GL. (V) Laboratory analysis and interpretation: LC. Manuscript writing: HL. (VII) Final approval of manuscript: All authors.
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The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.
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The patient agreed the doctors could use and publish his disease related data and photographs with personal information deleted.
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Liu, H., Lei, X., Chen, L. et al. Keratomycosis Caused by a Rare Pathogen, Myrothecium verrucaria. Mycopathologia 186, 893–895 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11046-021-00587-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11046-021-00587-5