Voriconazole Associated Hypertension: A Case Report

Objective: The study report a case of a young female with candida tropicalis and candida krusei infection who developed severe hypertension after she had repeated received voriconazole for few days.

Case Presentation: A 23-year-old female was admitted to hospital because of recurrent urinary tract infection. She underwent horseshoe nephrectomy, extracorporeal lithotripsy treatment and double J-tube placement in the past 5 years. After multiple surgeries, she developed recurring fungal urinary tract infections and underwent anti-infective treatment. Twenty days ago, the patient developed chills, fever, dizziness, fatigue, urinary tract irritation signs and bilateral low back pain. Urine culture suggests Candida croco (resistant to fluconazole). After taking antifungal therapy with voriconazole 300 mg q12h, the patient experienced an unexplained increased blood pressure and transient loss of consciousness.

The patient began to experience an increase in blood pressure (140-160/90-100 mmHg) on the second day of voriconazole treatment. After 5 days of taking voriconazole, the patient developed fatigue, dizziness and blurred vision with persistent hypertension (150/100 mmHg), and temporary loss of consciousness and syncope on day8, when blood pressure was measured at 175/95 mmHg.

Conclusion: This case illustrates that acute blood pressure elevation may manifest in patients taking normal doses of voriconazole, which deserves the attention of clinicians.