Two Cases of Saccharomyces cerevMae Fungemia in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as "baker's yeast" or "brewer's yeast", and is considered to be a frequent colonizer of human mucosal surfaces. Although it is a very uncommon cause of infections in humans, it can cause wide range of clinical syndromes, including pneumonia, empyema, liver abscess, peritonitis, urinary tract infection, cellulitis, unexplained fever, or septic shock, particularly in immunocompromised hosts. Fungemia is the most severe and well-proven manifestation of S.cerevisiae infections. According to previous studies, the conditions related to immunosupression, such as cancer, HIV infection, use of corticosteroid, neutropenia, stem cell transplantation, solid organ transplantation, burns and heart surgery, appear to be predisposing factors to fungemia. The antifungal agent of choice has not been established. We report two cases ofS.cerevMae fungemia in patients with hematologic malignancies. One was primary fungemia, and the other was presumed to be a catheter related one. Both cases showed a good prognosis with the complete negative conversion of fungemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]