The pathogenesis of acute systemic candidiasis in a susceptible inbred mouse strain.

The histopathological features of the acute infection by Candida albicans in susceptible CBA/H mice, as well as its dissemination in various organs has been examined. The brain, in which the localization of blastospores is minimal, is the organ most severely affected. A significant deposition of blastospores occurs in lungs, liver, spleen and kidney, but of these organs, only in the kidneys is infection established. A transient myocarditis follows the minor blastospore deposition that occurs in the heart. Infection in the affected organs is characterized by abscess formation while in the brain the process is complicated by the development of hydrocephalus and a pachymeningitis that erodes the petrous temporal and involves the vestibular apparatus. There is also infection of the retinae with an accompanying endophthalmitis.