Background: Invasive fungal infections (IFI) following allogeneic stem cell transplant (allo-HCT) are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Primary prophylaxis using voriconazole has been shown to decrease the incidence of IFI. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis at the Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) unit of the American University of Beirut including 195 patients who underwent allo-HCT for hematological malignancies and received voriconazole as primary prophylaxis for IFI. The primary endpoints were based on the incidence of IFI at day 100 and day 180, and the secondary endpoint based on fungal-free survival. Results: For the study, 195 patients who underwent allo-HCT between January 2015 and March 2021 were included. The median age at transplant was 43 years. Of the patients, 63% were male, and the majority of patients were diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (60%). Voriconazole was given for a median of 90 days and was interrupted in 20 patients. The majority of IFI cases were probable invasive aspergillosis (8%). The incidence of IFI including proven, probable and possible IFI was 34%. The incidence of proven and probable IFI was 5% were 8%, respectively. The incidence of proven-probable (PP-IFI) was 5.1% at day 100 and 6.6% at day 180. The majority of PP-IFI cases were invasive aspergillosis (8%). A univariate analysis of patients, transplant characteristics and IFI showed a significant correlation between the type of donor, disease status before transplant, graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis used and incidence of IFI. Only disease status post-transplant showed a significant correlation with fungal-free survival in the multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Primary prophylaxis with voriconazole in allo-HCT is associated with a low incidence of IFI. More studies are required to compare various antifungal agents in this setting.
Introduction and importance: Angiosarcomas are rare tumors of endothelial origin and may arise in any organ. Epithelioid angiosarcomas are a subtype of angiosarcoma that are rapidly progressive and typically fatal. Case presentation: The authors report a case of a 25-year-old previously healthy female who presented initially for dyspnea and palpitations, on further evaluation she was found to have large bilateral pleural effusions and cardiac tamponade. Clinical discussion: Pericardiocentesis and thoracentesis were performed alongside biopsies that revealed atypical cellular proliferation. Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) showed avid uptake in the anterior mediastinum, perivascular, paratracheal, subcarinal and pleural lymph nodes with large FDG uptake in the bilateral pleural effusion. Mediastinoscopy was done and biopsies showed an overtly malignant, epithelioid neoplasm with foci of vaso-formation; Keeping with high-grade epithelioid angiosarcoma of the pericardium. She received six cycles of weekly paclitaxel, but imaging for abdominal pain incidentally showed evidence of metastasis to the liver and spine so she was switched to Adriamycin-Ifosfamide for which she received one cycle so far. Her hospital course was complicated by high-output pleural effusions, chylothorax, left atrial thrombus formation and an intensive care unit stay for septic shock. Conclusion: Pericardial epithelioid angiosarcoma has been reported rarely in the literature. The authors aim to report a case of extensive metastatic pericardial epithelioid angiosarcoma in a young patient; which we believe can be an addition to the literature of a malignancy associated with poor prognosis and no definitive proven treatment regimen.