Geotrichum candidum and pulmonary deseases

Authors: Kahanpää, Asko
Journal: Karstenia, Volume 15 (1976), pages 5-12.
Doi: https://doi.org/10.29203/ka.1976.105
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Abstract:  “Geotrichum candidum is a yeast-like filamentous fungus common in nature, which occasionally causes geotrichosis especially in the bronchopulmonary area. The basic material of this study consisted of fungal cultures on many different culture media, of 6801 morning sputa and 1289 other bronchopulmonary specimens from patients chiefly with pulmonary disease. For purpose of comparison fungal cultures were additionally made of 1495 upper respiratory tract and 1711 faeces and gastric juice samples. The mean incidences of occurrence of Geotrichum candidum were 0.5 % in bronchial secretion, 1.8 % in morning sputum, 2.5 % in the upper respiratory tract, 2.6 % in gastric juice and 13.2 % in faeces.
Because of its commonness, the isolation of Geotrichum candidum from faeces hardly permit any conclusions. On the other hand, repeated abundant isolations from morning sputum and particularly from bronchial secretion in the course of months impart information of much greater significance.
Geotrichosis apparently is a more common mycosis than the approximately 60 cases in the literature indicate. It generally has a chronic, benign course and occasionally it may even heal spontaneously. Nevertheless, it may cause considerable trouble when occurring as a secondary, opportunistic infection complicating some primary disease. The possibility of geotrichosis should therefore be held in mind better than heretofore has been the case.”