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CASE REPORT
Isolated cerebral mucormycosis caused by Rhizomucor pusillus
  1. Saira Farid1,
  2. Omar AbuSaleh1,
  3. Rachael Liesman2,
  4. Muhammad Rizwan Sohail1
  1. 1Department of Infectious Diseases, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
  2. 2Department of Clinical Microbiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Muhammad Rizwan Sohail, sohail.muhammad{at}mayo.edu

Summary

A 61-year-old man with relapsing chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, status post allogeneic stem cell transplant and multiple chemotherapy regimens presented to the emergency room after suffering a grand mal seizure. His evaluation revealed a 1.5–2 cm ring-enhancing left temporal lobe brain lesion on the CT scan. This brain lesion was resected and the histopathology revealed an invasive fungal organism resembling mucormycosis. Amplification and sequencing of the 28S ribosomal RNA gene identified the organism as Rhizomucor pusillus. The patient was treated with liposomal amphotericin B 5 mg/kg every 24 hours for 4 weeks, and then was transitioned to oral posaconazole. Serial brain imaging at 1 and 3 months, while on therapy, showed significant improvement.

  • infectious diseases
  • infection (neurology)

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Footnotes

  • Contributors SF and MRS: case report planning. SF, OAS andRL: crafting of the manuscript. SF, OAS and MRS: critical revision of themanuscript for important intellectual content. MRS: case report supervision. Allauthors: acquisition of data; analysis and interpretation of data.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent Obtained.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.