RESUMO
Dos cepas de C.neoformans var. gattii serotipo B, fueron aisladas en el Parque de los Patricios de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Las muestras se recogieron en primavera, mediante el hisopado de la superficie interior de huecos y grietas de Eucalyptus spp. y otros árboles que, lamentablemente, no fueron identificados en el momento de la recolección. Los hisopos se inocularon en placas de agar ácido cafeico suplementado con antibióticos que se incubaron a 28§C durante una semana con observación diaria. Los aislamientos produjeron colonias características de la especie, lo que permitió detectarlos y separarlos de otros microorganismos presentes en la muestra. La identificación se realizó mediante estudios de fermentación de carbohidratos, asimilación de fuentes de carbono y nitrógeno y detección de ureasa y fenoloxidasa. La variedad se determinó utilizando el medio agarizado de canavanina-glicina-azul de bromotimol (CGB). La caracterización genotípica por reacción en cadena de la polimerasa con primer aleatorio (AP-PCR con el primer (GACA)4)mostró que el patrón de bandas de ambos aislamientos se diferenciaba en una única banda. En ambos casos el material provino de especies arbóreas diferentes de Eucalyptus spp. Estos dos aislamientos de fuentes naturales demuestran que C.neoformans var. gattii está presente en el medio ambiente de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, no necesariamente asociado a Eucalyptus spp. Este hallazgo podría explicar su asociación esporádica a infecciones humanas en la población local.
Assuntos
Poluição Ambiental/análise , Cryptococcus neoformans , ArgentinaRESUMO
C. neoformans (Cn) causes severe meningitis in immunocompromised patients, particularly those with AIDS. Little is known about Cn serotypes associated with human infections in Argentina due to the lack of antisera availability. The aim of this study was to produce these antisera, to serotype the Argentinean clinical isolates of Cn received at our laboratory from 1984 to 2001 and to evaluate the agreement of these results with the variety differentiation obtained with Canavanine-Glycine-Bromothymol Blue agar (CGB) medium. We studied 123 isolates recovered from first episodes of cryptococcosis from HIV-infected patients (85), non HIV-infected patients (6) and from other non specified patients (32). Of the isolates, 89
(5/123) corresponded to serotype D, 3
(3/129) were serotype AD, 3 isolates were untypable and 2 corresponded to serotype B. All the serotyped isolates agreed with the variety determined by CGB medium. These results indicate that, in our country, most cryptococcal infections in patients with AIDS are associated with serotype A (77/85), which agrees with international studies. In patients with other immunosuppressions, this serotype may be also predominant, although a low number of isolates were tested (4/6). Recovery of Cn serotype B in these clinical isolates suggests that studying the variety and their serotypes might be important to detect a probable epidemiological alteration.
RESUMO
Dermatomycoses are an important sanitary problem. Our country counts with partial epidemiological data only referred to a few geographical areas. The aim of our work was to perform a multicenter study with the participation of 15 medical centers located at the Capital City and in 11 Provinces of Argentina with different socioeconomical and cultural characteristics. Between October and December 1998, 851 ambulatory patients of both sexes (58 female, 42 male) with lesions compatible with mycoses in skin, nails or scalp were studied. Only 51.6 of the patients had mycoses confirmed by direct microscopic examination and/ or culture. Dermatophytes caused 69.3 of the diagnosticated infections, yeast 12.2 and Malassezia furfur 13.3. Agents of dermatomycoses most frequently isolated were T. rubrum (52.7), T. mentagrophytes (19.2) and M. canis (14.2). C. albicans was the predominant causative agent of yeast infections (44.4). In children below 11 years old, the most frequent infections were tinea capitis 55.4 (M. canis 60, T. tonsurans and M. gypseum 8.3) and tinea corporis 20 (M. canis 46, T. mentagrophytes 30). The most frequent localizations in adult were toenail and feet (63) (T. rubrum 47.3 and 45.7, T. mentagrophytes 9.5 and 23.4, respectively), fingernail 15.6 (C. albicans 25 and T. rubrum 8.3) and trunk and extremities 12.2 (M. furfur 57.5 and T. mentagrophytes 14.9). Direct examination allowed the diagnosis of 94.66 of all positive samples and 91.74 of the cases with positive isolation.