الفهرس 
Fungal infections in cancer patientsOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The prevalence of systemic fungal infections has increased in recent years due to the increasing population of imrnunocompromised patients and the increasing awareness of fungal infections. Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus are the major organisms responsible for invasive yeast and mold infections, respectively. Standard methods for the diagnosis of Candida and Aspergillus fungal infections include culture and histopathology, but these methods have limited sensitivity and specificity. Serological tests that involve the detection of antibodies for Aspergillus and Candida species are less helpful because of the poor antibody responses in immunosuppressed patients. In addition, the methods used for detecting circulating Aspergillus and Candida antigens, have poor sensitivity. Recently, PCR has been used successfully in detecting specific DNA of several fungal pathogens. The current study was carried out on 100 neutropenic cancer patients attending the inpatient and outpatient clinics of the Medical Research Institute and Alexandria Sporting students’ hospital. From each patient a blood sample was taken and tested for systemic fungal infection by blood culture and PCR (nested and multiplex).