Chronic Mucocutaneous Candidosis: Title and subTitle BreakAn Update

Chronic mucocutaneous candidosis (CMC) is an uncommon superficial candidal infection of the skin, nails, and oral and genital mucosa. Clinically, it is typified by the onset, usually within the first year of life, of chronic, occasionally granulomatous, candidal infections.¹ Persistent oral thrush with subsequent hypertrophic changes, vulvovaginal infection, cutaneous lesions—sometimes severely hyperkeratotic and affecting preponderantly the intertriginous sites but often involving the trunk, limbs, and scalp, and parenchymal involvement with accompanying nail dystrophy—are all typical clinical features of CMC. Frequently, concomitant dermatophyte infections are present.² Traditional anticandidal and antifungal therapies are ineffective.

Chronic mucocutaneous candidosis is not a single disease entity but rather a final common pathway for multiple predisposing abnormalities of the immune system that ranges from severe, life-threatening immunodeficiency syndromes to subtle deficiencies, usually of cell-mediated immunity.3 Many subgroups of CMC have been reported with pleomorphism of inheritance patterns, immunodeficiency states, and associated medical conditions.³