Faculty from the Yale Department of Internal Medicine’s Section of Infectious Diseases have recently contributed a clinical case to JAMA’s Clinical Challenge series. The case involved a patient with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes, who presented to the emergency room with a one-week history of weakness. He had a fever and his voice was muffled, with his physical exam revealing swollen tonsils. He underwent imaging of the head and neck, which showed thickening of the mucosal tissue of the sinuses. Histological assessment of the mucosal samples revealed the presence of right-angled hyphae as well as uncommonly seen fruiting bodies, consistent with a fungal infection known as mucormycosis.
Mucormycosis is a disease caused by a large group of environmental fungi, and most commonly affects those with poorly controlled diabetes or impaired immune systems. This case serves as a way for clinicians to become familiar with the presentation, evaluation, and treatment course for mucormycosis, a condition with a high risk of mortality that requires early recognition and treatment involving a combination of antifungals and surgical debridement.
To learn more, read the clinical case: A Patient With Type 1 Diabetes and Acute Rhinosinusitis.
Machiavello, F. J., Azar, M. M., & Trubin, P. A. (2024). A Patient With Type 1 Diabetes and Acute Rhinosinusitis. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2024.0642