biology

Lobomycosis

Lobomycosis is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lobomycosis rather than just read about it. In short: Lobomycosis is a fungal infection of the skin. It usually presents with bumps in the skin, firm swellings, deep skin lesions, or malignant tumors.

Key takeaways

Lobomycosis belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lobomycosis to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lobomycosis from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lobomycosis is a fungal infection of the skin. It usually presents with bumps in the skin, firm swellings, deep skin lesions, or malignant tumors. It is caused by Lacazia loboi (formerly named Loboa loboi). Transmission is generally by direct contact with contaminated water, soil, vegetation, or by direct contact with an infected dolphin. Diagnosis is by identifying Lacazia laboi in a lesion. This disease is usually found in humans and bottlenose dolphins, with the possible risk of transmission from one species to the other. It was discovered by Brazilian dermatologist Jorge Lobo. Other names which were given to the disease are: keloidal blastomycosis, Amazonian blastomycosis, blastomycoid granuloma, miraip and piraip. These last two names were given by natives of the Amazon and mean that which burns.

Signs and symptoms The disease is endemic in rural regions in South America and Central America. Infection most commonly develops after minor scratches or insect bites, but many patients cannot recall any skin trauma. Human-to-human transmission does not occur, and the disease is only acquired from the environment. The disease manifests as chronic keloidal nodular lesions on the ears, legs, or arms.

Diagnosis of Lobo's disease is made by taking a sample of the infected skin (a skin biopsy) and examining it under the microscope. Lacazia loboi is characterized by long chains of spherical cells interconnected by tubules. The cells appear to be yeast-like with a diameter of 5 to 12 μm. Attempts to culture L. loboi have so far been unsuccessful.

Diagnosis

Differential diagnosis The disease is often misdiagnosed as Blastomyces dermatitidis or Paracoccidiodes brasiliensis due to its similar morphology.

Treatment Surgical excision or cryosurgery is the treatment of choice. Treatment with antifungals has been considered ineffective, but the use of clofazimine and dapsone in patients with leprosy and lobomycosis has been found to improve the latter. This treatment regimen, with concomitant itraconazole, has been used to prevent recurrence after surgery.

Other animals Lesions in dolphins occur on the dorsal fin, head, flukes, and peduncle. In January 2006, a potential epidemic of lobomycosis was reported in dolphins of the Indian River Lagoon in Florida.

See also List of cutaneous conditions

References

Further reading Bermudez, L., M.F. van Bressem, O. Reyes-Jaimes, A.J. Sayegh & A.E. Paniz Mondolfi (2009) Lobomycosis in man and lobomycosis-like disease in bottlenose dolphin, Venezuela. Emerg. Infect. Dis., 15: 1301–1303. Carvalho, K. A. D., Floriano, M. C., Enokihara, M. M. S., & Mascarenhas, M. R. M. (2015). Jorge Lobo’s disease. Anais brasileiros de dermatologia, 90(4), 586–588. Esperon, F., D. Garcia-Parraga, E.N. Belliere & J.M. Sanchez-Vizcaino (2012) Molecular diagnosis of lobomycosis-like disease in a bottlenose dolphin in captivity. Med. Mycol., 50: 106–109. Francesconi, V. A., Klein, A. P., Santos, A. P. B. G., Ramasawmy, R., & Francesconi, F (2014) Lobomycosis: epidemiology, clinical presentation, and management options. Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management, 10, 851. Rodríguez-Toro G (May 1993). "Lobomycosis". Int. J. Dermatol. (Review). 32 (5): 324–32. doi:10.1111/j.1365-4362.1993.tb01466.x. PMID 8505156. S2CID 221814305. Paniz-Mondolfi, A., C. Talhari, L.S. Hoffmann, D.L. Connor and S. Talhari & al. (2012) Lobomycosis: An emerging disease in humans and delphinidae. Mycoses, 55: 298-309 | résumé. Reif, J.S., A.M. Schaefer & G.D. Bossart (2013) Lobomycosis: Risk of zoonotic transmission from dolphins to humans. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis., 13: 689–693. Schaefer, A. M., Reif, J. S., Guzmán, E. A., Bossart, G. D., Ottuso, P., Snyder, J., ... & McCarthy, P. J. (2016). Toward the identification, characterization and experimental culture of Lacazia loboi from Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Sabouraudia, 54(6), 659–665.

External links

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lobomycosis

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lobomycosis claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lobomycosis before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lobomycosis ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lobomycosis

In research: Lobomycosis appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lobomycosis in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lobomycosis is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Animal fungal diseases, Mycosis-related cutaneous conditions, Tropical diseases, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lobomycosis outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lobomycosis in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lobomycosis means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lobomycosis out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lobomycosis in simple terms?

Lobomycosis is a fungal infection of the skin. It usually presents with bumps in the skin, firm swellings, deep skin lesions, or malignant tumors.

Why does Lobomycosis matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lobomycosis?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lobomycosis.