Abstract
Acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis (AIFRS) is a fulminant disease with a high mortality rate. Here, we review the clinical and pathologic features of AIFRS over a 30-year period at a tertiary-care academic center focusing on diagnostic practice, especially the use of intra-operative consultation (IOC). A 1-year trial of intraoperative staining with DiffQuik® (DQ) was also assessed. There were 202 cases from 104 patients with AIFRS. The incidence of AIFRS increased over time (6.8 per year in the past decade versus 1.9 before 2009) as did the number of IOCs per case (2.4 per case in the past decade versus 0.6 before 2009). Disagreement between final diagnosis and IOC was seen in 8.3 % of patients, and the block-by-block error rate was 14.9 %. Fusarium was the most common fungus identified. An attempt to categorize the fungal organism based on histopathology was performed in 85.6 % of patients, with 91 % agreement with microbial cultures or PCR. Fungal hyphae were subjectively easier to identify on DQ stained cryostat sections compared to on routine hematoxylin and eosin stained sections and hyphae were identified in all 5 blocks in which organisms were present. The increasing incidence of AIFRS and expanding use of IOC indicate a need to improve and standardize the diagnostic protocol. The use of DQ as visual aid in IOC for AIFRS may be useful.
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The authors would like to thank Melvin Stuart, Senior Clinical Laboratory Technologist, for his help with frozen sections and development of the DiffQuik frozen section protocol.
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Ethical approval and consent were waived by the Ethics Committee of the Washington University in Saint Louis Institutional Review Board, in view of the retrospective nature of the study and all the procedures being performed were part of the routine care.
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Gonzalez, M.L., Chen, S., Mazaheri, P. et al. Acute Invasive Fungal Sinusitis: A 30-Year Review of Pathology Practice and Possible Utility of the DiffQuik® Stain. Head and Neck Pathol 15, 852–858 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12105-021-01295-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12105-021-01295-8