[Adiaspiromycosis--a little known lung disease]. / Ubersichtsarbeit.

Adiaspiromycosis produced by the fungus Emmonsia crescens is a pulmonary disease afflicting primarily small wild mammals. Man, too, may become an accidental link of the saproparatrophic circulation of the agent. Humans are infected--similarly to other mammals--by inhaling the elements of the saprophytic stage of the fungus living for long time periods in the soil substrates. After the infecting cells, aleuriospores, have invaded the host lungs, they are converted into the elements of the parasitic stage--adiaspores. These are surrounded by granulomatous tissue and reach up to 700 microns in diameter. In the circulation of the agent, the infected wild mammals play a role of reservoir hosts harbouring the parasitic stage of the fungus in nature for a relatively long time. In some cases these animals also enable spread of adiaspiromycosis from exoanthropic foci into human habitations. Clinical and experimental studies show that the result of an infection may be--in addition to its liquidation--an asymptomatic form of disease or a disseminated pulmonary process. In addition to as yet insufficiently proved proper action of fungus cells, a reduction in the functional pulmonary parenchyma plays a role in the pathogenesis of the pulmonary forms. An existence of extrapulmonary forms of adiaspiromycosis is not excluded. Serological methods have not been routinely used for diagnosis as yet: immune reaction of the organism has a character of antibody response and delayed hypersensitivity. Cell mediated immunity has not been studied as yet. Treatment of human disease is primarily a surgical one. The fungistatic drugs pimaricin or amphotericin B may be employed, corticosteroids may be indicated in individual cases. The efficacy of modern antifungal substances has not been established as yet.

[Vaccination of cattle against trichophytosis in the prevention and control of dermatophytic zoonoses]. / Zkusenosti s vakcinací skotu proti trichofytóze pri prevenci a tlumení dermatofytických zoonóz.

The results of a four-year study of the occurrence of trichophytosis in some cattle stocks in the Pardubice district are presented. The monoetiological nature of this mycosis is documented; this mycosis can be successfully controlled by vaccination. Experiments demonstrated a good activity of antigens which were included in commercial vaccines. The evaluation of the antibody reaction in test rabbits and in vaccinated and spontaneously infected cattle was subjected to critical analysis. However, the main point of the whole study is a general evaluation of the possibilities and limitations of cattle vaccination against trichophytosis as ensues from literary data and from the authors' experience. The results indicate that in permanent application of all the hitherto used preventive and repressive methods a technically correct active immunization of cattle means the best contribution to the control of trichophytosis. The discussion deals with the theoretical problems of the nature and duration of immunity to these diseases and with the choice of the best vaccines and vaccination procedures.

To the problem of secondary mycotic infections and their etiological agents.

Modern therapeutic procedures that are based on advanced chemotherapy and modern medical technique have led to a prolongation of chronic patient's survival, but have also created conditions for the development of till now little known infectious complications. Among these are, no doubt, mycotic diseases caused by opportunistic microorganisms. Primarily apathogenic fungi, living as a rule in the external environment as saprophytes or colonizing as harmless epiphytes the integumental localizations of healthy humans, start to behave in the subjects with reduced resistance as invasive pathogens. The authors summarize pertinent information of most important systemic mycotic infections of this nature, which occur on the territory of Czechoslovakia: candidiasis, aspergillosis, phycomycosis, cryptococcosis and nocardiosis. Considering the mycological, ecological and pathophysiological aspects of these infections, the authors try to elucidate not only theoretical principles of the etiological agents' opportunism, but also practical impacts of the sustained increase in the number of these diseases. Apart from data on the extrahuman existence of these microorganisms, the authors provide characteristics of the most important pathogenetic mechanisms facilitating their paratrophic propagation. Since the basic conditions of the onset of complications caused by the opportunistic mycotic agents are in principle complied with in almost every hospitalized patient, emphasis is put particularly on factors leading to iatrogenic lesions. Constant close cooperation between the attending physician and microbiologist is considered as one of the basic preconditions for a successful therapeutical control of these pathological conditions.