Archana Keche¹, Nitin M Nagarkar², Swati Salila³*, Ripu Daman Arora⁴, Rupa Mehta⁴ and Richa Tigga³

¹Additional Professor, Department of Microbiology, AIIMS, Raipur, India
²Professor and Head, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Director and CEO, AIIMS, Raipur, India
³Senior Resident, Department of Microbiology, AIIMS, Raipur, India
⁴Additional Professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, AIIMS, Raipur, India

*Corresponding Author: Swati Salila, Senior Resident, Department of Microbiology, AIIMS, Raipur, India.

Received: November 02, 2021; Published: January 20, 2022

Abstract

Mucormycosis is a life-threatening, opportunistic infection, caused by a group of saprophytic fungi belonging to taxonomical Order Mucorales. Severe COVID-19 disease is associated with an increase in pro-inflammatory markers, this, increases the susceptibility to various infections. One such opportunistic fungal infection involved is mucormycosis, an angio-invasive disease which is often linked to the use of high dose steroid therapy for longer duration. In this study samples were taken from post COVID-19 patients suspected of mucormycosis, requested for direct KOH microscopy and fungal culture. A total of 699 samples were processed (including repeat samples) received from 361 post COVID-19 patients. Out of the 361 patients screened by KOH/Calcoflour white preparation, 101(27.9%) came to be positive after first time sampling. On repeat sampling, 36 patients (9.97%%) were additionally picked as positive. A total of 137 patients were positive on screening by KOH. Hence, the positivity rate was increased from 27.9% to 37.87% on multiple and appropriate sampling. Diagnosis of Mucormycosis remains a challenging task. Multiple sampling of the accessible site of infected area can be a key to early diagnosis of CAM in emergency. The mortality as well as morbidity can be reduced by prompt diagnosis and treatment initiation.

Keywords: COVID Associated Mucormycosis (CAM); Multiple Sampling; Early Diagnosis

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Citation

Citation: Swati Salila., et al. “Multiple and Appropriate Sampling Proved as Key for Early Diagnosis of COVID Associated Mucormycosis".Acta Scientific Otolaryngology 4.2 (2022): 02-07.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Swati Salila., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.