Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Itraconazole pulse treatment for fungal infection in cats
By Puls, Christopher et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2018·1 Elanco Animal Health, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Efficacy of itraconazole oral solution using an alternating-week pulse therapy regimen for treatment of cats with experimental Microsporum canis infection.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of 80 cats with a fungal infection called Microsporum canis were treated with an oral medication called itraconazole to see how well it worked. The cats received the medication in a special pulse therapy regimen, taking it for one week every other week for five weeks. The results showed that 60% of the cats treated with itraconazole had negative fungal cultures, meaning they were cured, compared to only 2.5% of the untreated cats. Most of the treated cats also showed improvement in their symptoms and were declared clinically cured by the end of the study.
People also search for: cat fungal infection treatment · itraconazole for cats · Microsporum canis cure · cat skin infection medication
Abstract
Objectives The objective of this study was to evaluate itraconazole 10 mg/ml oral solution for the treatment of Microsporum canis infection using an alternating-week pulse therapy regimen in a controlled laboratory setting. Methods Eighty cats with experimentally induced infections were randomly assigned to treatment (itraconazole vs control [sterile water]), administered 5 mg/kg PO q24h for 1 week on alternate weeks for 5 weeks, followed by a 4 week follow-up period. Topical therapeutic treatment was not administered. Cats were individually housed in stainless steel cages that were cleaned and disinfected daily. Study measures included weekly fungal cultures, clinical lesion scores, Wood's lamp examination and periodic laboratory monitoring. Mycological cure was defined as two consecutive negative cultures. Results Itraconazole-treated cats had significantly greater ( P = 0.0003) mycological cure compared with untreated controls (24/40 [60%] vs 1/40 [2.5%], respectively) and all of these reached clinical cure and had negative final Wood's lamp examinations. Furthermore, 36/40 (90%) treated cats had at least one negative fungal culture by the end of the study vs only 3/40 (7.5%) control cats. For both treatment groups, prevalence of clinical cure peaked at the end of the study (week 9), with 39/40 (97.5%) itraconazole-treated cats and 6/40 (15%) control cats achieving clinical cure. Wood's lamp negative examination rates were significantly greater ( P <0.0001) for itraconazole-treated cats compared with controls (39/40 cats [97.5%] vs 6/40 [15%], respectively) and followed the same pattern of improvement as primary clinical lesions. Conclusions and relevance In this controlled study, orally administered itraconazole using a 5 mg/kg pulse-dose treatment regimen reduced the time to mycological cure and increased both mycological and clinical cure rates compared with untreated controls.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29025320/