Walsh & Hoyt: Trichosporon Beigelii (Trichosporonosis)

This fungus is part of the normal human flora. It often grows in cultures of stool, skin, and urine. Patients with acute leukemia or other hematologic malignancies, patients receiving immunosuppressive agents after organ transplantation, patients who have received prosthetic cardiac valves, and patients with AIDS may acquire disseminated trichosporonosis. The typical patient is an immunosuppressed individual who develops symptoms of a subacute or chronic meningitis with moderate CSF pleocytosis and increased protein. Cultures of the CSF may grow T. beigelii.