European Confederation of Medical Mycology
Confédération Européenne de Mycologie Médicale

Observational study to determine the rate of occurrence of invasive mould disease and treatment outcomes in at-risk patients: a European prospective invasive mould disease audit (PIMDA).

ECMM is seeking participation from European hospitals with haematology units and/or transplant centres that frequently treat patients for AML/MDS, or recipients of an allogeneic HSCT, or both, to take part in an observational study to determine the rate of occurrence of invasive mould disease (IMD) and treatment outcomes in at-risk patients.

Fusarium species cause a variety of infections in humans, including superficial, locally invasive, and disseminated infections. The clinical presentation largely depends on the immune status of the host and the fungal portal of entry.(1)
Superficial infections, such as keratitis and onychomycosis, are usually observed in immunocompetent individuals, whereas invasive and disseminated infections occur in immunocompromised patients and are mainly associated with prolonged and profound neutropenia or severe T-cell immunodeficiency.(2)

ECMM Working Group on Zygomycosis was initiated by Georgios L. Petrikkos (University of Athens, Greece) in 2004. The prospective study was planned to start on January 1st, 2005 to last for one year. One year (2004) retrospective data were also planned to be collected. All clinical and epidemiological data were to be analysed yearly and became available to all participants through the coordinating site.

In 2005, 17 countries have declared their willingness to participate in this ECMM Intensive Care Unit (ICU) study in surgical patients. Prof. Lena Klingspor (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden) is ECMM coordinator of the study.

An initial meeting of the ECMM ICU working group was held in Berlin, October 22, 2005, at the Trends in Medical Mycology 2 conference. The study started September 1st, 2006 and is extended to 31st of December, 2008.

An ECMM Working Group was founded at the ECMM congress in Budapest, August 2002 as a continuation of an existing informal international network, to focus European attention on the much overlooked but highly virulent systemic and disseminated infections by Pseudallescheria and Scedosporium species. The coordinator of the study is Prof. G. Sybren de Hoog (Centraaalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Utrecht,The Netherlands).

ECMM Survey on Dermatophytosis in Europe was proposed in 1999 (Mycology Newsletter 1999 vol. 4, P. 9-11). Participants in this study were asked to provide data about the main dermatophyte species involved in cat and dog ringworm over the five year period 1995-1999. Six countries participated under the supervision of ECMM convenor Prof. Francisco Javier Cabañes (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain).

The ECMM survey on histoplasmosis in Europe was set up in March 1997 to examine the epidemiology of this disease in Europe. It aimed to assess how frequently histoplasmosis occurred in Europe, where and how the infection was acquired, groups at risk, the causative organism, the methods by which the infection was diagnosed and what therapy patients received. The survey was carried out over a 5 year period, with information collected retrospectively from January 1995 to December 1997 and prospectively from January 1998 to December 1999.

To investigate the incidence and the epidemiology of cryptococcosis in Europe and provide new insights into the distribution of the infecting strains over the continent, a prospective survey was started on July 1997 by the ECMM. Members in seventeen European countries participated in a collaborative prospective survey (Sept 1997- Dec 1999). Convenor of this study was Maria-Anna Viviani (Istituto di Igiene e Medicina Preventiva Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy).

ECMM survey on tinea capitis was started in 1997. ECMM convenor was Professor Roderick J. Hay (Queens University Belfast, UK).

A survey to update the epidemiological and mycological profile of candidaemia in Western Europe was started by the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) in September 1997. European convenor of the study was Prof. Renée Grillot (CHU Grenoble Hôpital Michallon, France).

A prospective, sequential, hospital population based study was carried out for 28 months. During this period a total of 2089 cases was documented by 106 hospitals in seven European countries. This survey represents the first done in Europe and the largest multicentre study in the world.