Disseminated coccidioidomycosis; treatment with ethyl vanillate; a preliminary report.

Ethyl vanillate, previously reported to be useful in the treatment of disseminated histoplasmosis, was administered to eight patients with disseminated coccidioidomycosis. Therapeutically effective concentrations of ethyl vanillate were obtained in only three patients, but, in them, the disease was apparently arrested. Failures occurred with patients who were too ill to tolerate the large amounts of ethyl vanillate required to attain a therapeutic concentration in the blood. The principal difficulties of administering ethyl vanillate are (a) the large doses required and (b) the lack of a parenterally administrable form of the drug. Ethyl vanillate, although not universally applicable, may be useful in selected cases of disseminated coccidioidomycosis and should be given further trial.