Candida albicans endogenous endophthalmitis in a coronavirus disease 2019 positive patient

Author: Sema Kaderli (Turkey)

Co-authors: Aylin Karalezli, Ahmet Kaderli, Burak Citil, Ali Osman Saatci

Purpose

To report a case of Candida albicans endogenous endophthalmitis in a COVID-19 positive patient.

Setting/Venue

Mugla Sitki Kocman University, research and traininig hospital

Methods

A 61-year-old woman presented to our clinic with progressively decreasing vision, pain, and redness in her left eye. The visual acuity was counting fingers at 3 meters in the left eye. A slit-lamp biomicroscopy exhibited a marked diffuse conjunctival injection and 1+ cells in the anterior chamber. Fundoscopy showed vitreous cells, 1+ haze and yellowish-white dots in the vitreous.There was a history that the patient was diagnosed with COVID-19 a month ago and hospitalized in intensive care unit for 20 days and used oral corticosteroids.

Results

The vitreous sample was tested positive for culture-proven C.albicans. The patient’s nasopharyngeal swabs tested positive for COVID-19 in a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay.After culture positivity, the intravitreal Amphotericin B was adminstered and intravenous form of the drug was added to treatment as 3 mg/kg/day. She also received routine topical uveitis treatment (prednisolone acetat 0.1% and cyclopentolate hydrochloride 1.0%) for her left eye. The visual acuity improved to 20/40 and there were no signs of vitreous infiltrates after 2 week of treatment and the chorioretinitis lesion has regressed.

Conlusions

The endogenous fungal endophthalmitis should be kept in mind in patients who present with panuveitis and hospitalized for COVID-19.

Financial Disclosure

no financial disclosure