This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (4)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2001;286:2531-2532.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

San Francisco—New research hints that a common medical practice—the use of heparin in intravascular catheters to discourage blockages by blood clots—may sometimes inadvertently trigger events that transform a benign fungal infection into a deadly illness.

The microbe in question is Candida albicans, a yeast that often harmlessly colonizes patients. But C albicans has a darker side: it is also the leading cause of invasive fungal disease in premature infants and others with weakened immune systems, such as individuals infected with HIV, people recovering from surgery, and cancer or bone marrow transplantation patients.

What transforms this microbial Dr Jekyll into a deadly Mr Hyde? Although many factors are likely to be involved, the new findings—though preliminary—suggest that heparin in intravascular catheters may play a role by triggering a series of events that result in a life-threatening toxic shock-like reaction.

Candida albicans: What turns it deadly? . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Neonatal Innate Immunity to Infectious Agents
Marodi
Infect. Immun. 2006;74:1999-2006.
FULL TEXT  

Evidence-Based Practice in the Management of Vascular Access Devices for Home Parenteral Nutrition Therapy
Ryder
JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr 2006;30:S82-S93.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT