Zygomycosis and the Joplin Tornado

Cunninghamella Species

July 2011

Cunninghamella is one that you don’t see all that often but it does cause disease particularly in burn patients. It is characterized by having sporangium and at the tip a swollen vesicle that gives rise to the sporangiola. These are sporangia that are sitting on the outside of a vesicle and they are attached to that vesicle by a thread-like attachment. And those sporangiola have very fine spikes on them. And you can’t see them on this illustration but if you see it underneath a microscope at a higher power, you will notice they are very finely rough walled. This organism does cause disease in burn patients. Cunninghamella elegans.

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Cunninghamella Species

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• Introduction
• Tragedy in Joplin
• Unsuspected Fungal Infection Infects Some Joplin Residents
• Zygomycosis
• The Zygomycetes
• The Zygomycetes
• Pauciseptate Hyphae
• Zygomycetes: Basic Structures
• Basic Structures
• Rhizopus Species
• Lichtheimia (Absidia) Species
• Lichtheimia Species
• Mucor Species
• Cunninghamella Species
• Apophysomyces elegans
• Apophysomyces elegans
• Apophysomyces elegans
• Apophysomyces elegans
• Apophysomyces elegans
• Diagnosis of Zygomycosis
• Large Pauciseptate Hyphae—H&E Stain
• Unstained Hyphal Fragment On GMS-Stained Tissue
• Vascular Invasion By Hyphae
• Large Pauciseptate Hyphae—Calcofluor White
• Video Credits
• Questions?