Recent trends in opportunistic fungal infections in japan: a survey of national atuopsy records from 1985 to 1995

摘要

Deep fungal infections still remain a serious clinical problem in the care and management of immunocompromised patients. During the last decade, however, the diagnosis, prevention, and antifungal treatment of deep-seated maycoses have been greatly improved to enable us to expect favorable outcome of the selected patients. Dose this tnedency give reise to any singificant influence on the incidence of opportunistic fungal infections among hospital mortalities? To answer this quaestion the analysis of autopsy data is of great value. The nationwide autopsy database, published annually by The Japanese Society of Pathology since 1960, consititutes a powerful asset for epidemiologic research, outcome analysis, and vital statistics. Based on this database several authors conducted a survey of deep fungal infections at autopsy and provided us with invaluable data concerning the postmortem epidemiology of deep fungal infections up to the early 1980s. The aim and scope of hits study is to extend their efforts and elucidate recent trends in deep fungal infections in Japan.