Mucocutaneous Candidiasis - Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Definition

Mucocutaneous candidiasis is a rare condition caused by fungus and yeast. It is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by recurrent or persistent superficial infections of the skin, mucous membranes, and nails with Candida organisms, usually Candida albicans. There are certain people who are unable to fight off CANDIDA. Most cases of thrush get better quickly with anti-fungal treatment and do not recur, but in a small number of people, thrush recurs quickly and it is difficult to cure. It affects infants of age below three and young adults, is rarely seen in adults with other diseases. Patients usually have problems with thrush and yeast diaper rash as babies. Some patients also have problems with additional germs including bacteria and other fungi. Patients with mucocutaneous candidiasis have an increased incidence of autoimmune disorders including endocrine disorders, diabetes, hemolytic anemia, autoimmune hair loss or loss of skin pigment.

Causes

1. Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis is a spectrum of immunodeficiency diseases that is characterized by an impaired host response to candidal organisms.
2. Fungus and yeast may also be the causes of mucocutanious candidiasis. In case of chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, the body is less able to fight fungal infections, including yeast infections. These disorders may be confined to the cutaneous surface, with little propensity for systemic involvement.
3. The changes in the APS gene that cause the symptoms can be found in people throughout the world, but it is somewhat more frequent in Finnish, Jewish, and Persian populations.

Symptoms

1. Children with mucocutaneous candidiasis typically begin having problems in early childhood. Often diarrhea and malnutrition from poor absorption of nutrients is the first sign.
2. Children may begin to have low calcium levels, which can lead to seizure if not treated.
3. Primary patches may have adjacent satellite papules and pustules.
4. Candida granuloma is a severe localized form which may occur with or without endocinopathy characterized by marked hyperkeratic granulomatous lesions.
5. It is characterized by red, pustular, crusted, and thickened plaques resembling psoriasis, especially on the nose and forehead and invariably associated with chronic oral candidiasis.
6. Subungual infections are characterized by distal separation of one or several fingernails, with white or yellow discoloration of the subungual area.

Treatment

1. Topical therapies are not usually effective in patients with this disease. Treatment of oral involvement in this disease can be aided by therapy with clotrimazole troches or oral nystatin solution.
2. Systemic antifungal therapy is used in the treatment of mucocutanious candidiasis fractionally. may be used alone or in combination with an immunomodulatory agent. The drawbacks of systemic antifungal therapy include the risk of adverse effects or toxicity.
3. The most widely studied treatment is the use of transfer factor. Transfer factor is a cell-free protein extracted from the T lymphocytes of Candida-immune donors.
4. White blood cell transfusions yielded transient relief in patients with mucocutanious candidiasis.
5. Thymus transplantation can also used for clearance of this disease in patients with DiGeorge syndrome and other severe deficiencies in cell-mediated immunity.