Urinary Mycotoxins: A Review of Contaminated Buildings and Food in Search of a Biomarker Separating Sick Patients from Controls

Urinary Mycotoxins: A Review of Contaminated Buildings and Food in Search of a Biomarker Separating Sick Patients from Controls

ABSTRCT:
Beginning in 2010, there have been an increasing number of patients with a chronic multisystem illness who have been using measurements of mycotoxins in urine to diagnose a putative illness for which antifungals in various forms (oral, IV, sublingual and intranasal) are being used as therapy. Many of these patients and providers believe that the illness is caused by fungi living in the human body, making toxins, or has been acquired by exposure to the interior of waterdamaged buildings (WDB). This practice persists despite the absence of (i) an accepted case definition; (ii) any validated control groups; (iii) any rigorous case/control studies; (iv) any prospective, placebocontrolled studies; (v) any confirmation of active fungal infection; (vi) any confirmation that urinary mycotoxins are not simply derived from diet; and presence (vii) of a sharp repudiation from the CDC of this practice and the use of antifungals in 2015; and presence (viii) of  a robust literature demonstrating causation of illness acquired from WDB is inflammatory in causation, not infectious.

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