Lutz-Splendore-de Almeida disease

A blastomycosis caused by the fungus Paracoccidioides (Blastomyces) brasiliensis. It is an ulcerative process that begins in the mouth or nostrils and spreads to the vicinity, also often spreading to the tonsils, lungs, gastro-intestinal tract, liver and spleen. Four principal types are recognized: the mucocutaneous form, the lymphatic form, the visceral form and the mixed form. It occurs chiefly in South-American farm workers. Picking the teeth with twigs or chewing leaves contaminated with the fungus are the suspected cause.

Blastomycosis was first described by the French botanist and biologist Philippe Edouard Léon Van Tieghem (1839-1914) in 1876. It was next described by the American dermatologist Thomas Caspar Gilchrist (1862-1927) and W. R. Stokes. These descriptions are of "North American" Blastomycosis, which is caused by Blastomyces dermatitidis. This entity will be entered as Gilchrist’s disease. South American" Blastomycosis is caused by a different organism, Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. There is also a "European" blastomycosis caused by the Cryptococcus neoformans fungus.

We thank Sarah Meisner for information submitted.

• A. Lutz:
  Uma mycose pseudococcidioidica localizada no boca e observada no Brasil. Contribuicao ao conhecimento das hypoblastomycoses americanas.
  Imprensa médica, Rio de Janeiro, 1908, 16: 151-163.
• A. Splendore:
  Zimonematosi con localizzazione nella cavita della bocca osservata nel Brasile.
  Bulletin de la Société de pathologie exotique, Paris, 1912, 5: 313-319.
• F. P. De Almeida:
  Lesoes cutaneas da blastomicose en cabaios experimentalmente infeetados.
  Anais da Faculdade de medicina de Univesidade da São Paulo, 1928, 3: 59-64.
• F. P. de Almeida, Carlos da Silva Lacaz:
  Micoses broco-pulmonares.
  São Paulo, Comp. Melhoramentos, 1942. 98 pages.