Evaluation of Clinical Profile, Diagnostic Tests, And Prognosis of Cryptococcal Meningitis in HIV Infected Patients in Western India

Author(s):  
Deepak Kumar ◽  
Suresh Bishnoi ◽  
Durga Shankar Meena ◽  
Gopal Krishana Bohra ◽  
Naresh Midha ◽  
...  

Background: Cryptococcal meningitis is a dreaded complication in HIV infected patients. It was associated with high mortality and morbidity before the advent of Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy. A study was planned in our institute to evaluate the clinical profile, laboratory findings, and prognostic factors for survival in these patients. Settings and Design: A prospective hospital-based observational study, conducted in the Department of Medicine at a tertiary care centre in western Rajasthan. Method and Material: HIV infected patients presenting with clinical features of meningitis, and positive CSF culture for Cryptococcus were included in our study. All cases underwent detailed clinical history, physical examinations and relevant laboratory investigations including CD4 count and CSF examination. Results: 48 HIV infected cryptococcal meningitis patients were analysed, and the most common presenting clinical features were headache (85.42%), and fever (72.92%), followed by neck stiffness (62.50%). CSF examination was also done for Cryptococcal Antigen test which was reactive in all cases (100%), and India ink staining was positive in 43 cases (89.58%). Significant fatal outcome was associated with patients presenting with altered sensorium, loss of consciousness, cranial nerve palsy and CD4 cell count of less than 100. Similarly, on laboratory and imaging diagnosis, cryptococcal antigen test (>3+reactive), fundus examination (papilloedema) and abnormal CT/MRI brain imaging were associated with poor survival. Conclusion: Cryptococcal meningitis is a potentially lethal infection in immunocompromised individuals and should be diagnosed early with high clinical suspicion as around 10% of the cases may not be detected on India ink staining and a large proportion (75%) of cases may have normal imaging at initial evaluation. Early diagnosis, watchful eye on prognostic factors and treatment is vital to improve outcome in these patients.

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 1019-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. Jarvis ◽  
A. Percival ◽  
S. Bauman ◽  
J. Pelfrey ◽  
G. Meintjes ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yirui Xie ◽  
Bing Ruan ◽  
Guanjing Lang ◽  
Biao Zhu

Background: Streptococcus suis has been recognized as a zoonotic pathogen that may cause infections in humans. Although rarely described, it is not surprising that both cryptococcal and streptococcus suis meningitis infections can co-exist in a HIV-infected patient with a low CD4 count. However, a fast and accurate diagnose of meningitis of multipathogenic infections is challenging. In this report, we describe such a case of a HIV-infected patient with meningitis of multipathogenic infections.Case Presentation: The patient was a 34-year-old Chinese male who was diagnosed with cryptococcal meningitis and HIV at the same time about 1 year ago. During the same time period, he had received (with good compliance) fluconazole and tenofovir-lamivudine- dolutegravir based antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, symptom of progressively worsening occipital headache appeared after he was exposed to a truck which was used for transporting pigs. Initial workup indicated an increase of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) opening pressure (OP) and an increase in the number of lymphocytes and proteins in CSF. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan revealed that partial cerebellar surface enhancement. The cryptococcus capsular antigen test of CSF was positive. The results of the India Ink microscopy for cryptococcus, nucleic acid of CMV and EBV and mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) tests of CSF were negative. The results of the bacteria and fungi smear and culture of CSF were also negative. Eventually, streptococcus suis was detected using next-generation sequencing (NGS) in CSF. The diagnosis of Streptococcus suis meningitis was made based on the patient's contact history with carrier pigs and the clinical findings addressed above. The treatment of 2 weeks of intravenous ceftriaxone and 1 week of oral moxifloxacin resulted in improvement of the condition of CSF. The anti-fungal treatment using fluconazole continued until the CFS OP went down to a normal level and the cryptococcus capsular antigen test of CSF was negative 6 months later.Conclusion: This case highlights that NGS might be beneficial to HIV-infected patients who have meningitis with negative CSF culture results. Multiple etiologies for such condition in the immunocompromised patients must be taken into consideration and early stage NGS is recommended.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (02) ◽  
pp. 067-068 ◽  
Author(s):  
RM Saldanha Dominic ◽  
H V Prashanth ◽  
Shalini Shenoy ◽  
Shrikala Baliga

ABSTRACT Background: Cryptococcus neoformans is the most common fungal pathogen to infect the central nervous system, and an effective diagnostic method is therefore necessary for the early diagnosis of cryptococcal meningitis. Aim: The efficacy of India ink preparation, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) culture and CSF cryptococcal antigen detection by the latex agglutination test for diagnosis of cryptococcal meningitis are compared to determine the most efficient test. Materials and Methods: Two hundred CSF samples from human immunodeficiency virus - positive patients suspected to be suffering from meningitis were screened for Cryptococcus neoformans. Results: Latex agglutination for cryptococcal antigen detection was found to be more sensitive compared to India ink staining and CSF culture. Conclusion: Antigen detection by latex agglutination proved to be both sensitive and specific method for the diagnosis of cryptococcal meningitis. Rapid, early diagnosis of infection by detection of cryptococcal antigen by latex agglutination may alter the prognosis for these patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Ashish Bajaj ◽  
Bibhati Mishra ◽  
Poonam Loomba ◽  
Archana Thakur ◽  
Abha Sharma ◽  
...  

Background: Cryptococcal meningitis has emerged as an important opportunistic central nervous system (CNS) infection in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive patients. It is associated with a high mortality rate. Hence early diagnosis is necessary to start appropriate treatment. Cryptococcosis is generally found in association with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) although it has been reported to cause disease in HIV-seronegative patients also. Objective:Prevalence of Cryptococcal meningitis in a tertiary care centre. Material & Methods: A total of 93 Cerebrospinal fluid samples from suspected cases of fungal meningitis were received in the microbiology department of GB Pant Hospital(GIPMER) from January to June 2018. Samples were subjected to direct microscopy- wet mount, India ink preparation and Gram stain, Cryptococcal antigen detection(Latex agglutination), and Fungal culture. In vitro susceptibility of Cryptococcus isolates to Fluconazole, Voriconazole, 5- Flucytosine and Amphotericin B was performed using standard broth microdilution method. Results: Out of 93 CSF samples, 6 were positive for India ink preparation and showed gram positive budding yeast cells by gram staining. All 6 samples were positive for the cryptococcal antigen test and fungal culture. Five were identified as C. neoformans and one C. gatti. All strains were susceptible to Amphotericin B. Four patients were HIV reactive and succumbed to the diseaseduring treatment. Two patients were found to be coinfected with Hepatitis B virus. Ashish Bajaj1, Bibhabati Mishra2, Poonam S Loomba2, Archana Thakur3, Abha Sharma4, Prachala G Rathod1, Madhusmita Das1, Ashna Bhasin1 1Senior Resident, 2Director Professor, 3Director Professor & Head, 4Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER), New Delhi, India ABSTRACT Cryptococcal meningitis has emerged as an important opportunistic central nervous system (CNS) infection in immunosuppressed patients.It is associated with a high mortality rate(>30%) in immunosuppressed patients especially those infected with HIV, hence early diagnosis is necessary to start appropriate treatment. Prevalence of cryptococcal infection is increasing in developing nations including India as per some recent studies.(1) Conclusion: Index of suspicion of Cryptococcus infection as a possible cause of meningitis must be considered in chronic meningitis cases. Microscopy (India ink preparation) may be used as a cheap and rapid diagnostic tool.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajendra Bhati ◽  
Pramendra Sirohi ◽  
Bharat Sejoo ◽  
Deepak Kumar ◽  
Gopal K Bohra ◽  
...  

Objective: Cryptococcal meningitis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in HIV infected individuals. In the era of universal antiretroviral therapy incidence of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) related cryptococcal meningitis has increased. Detection of serum cryptococcal antigen in asymptomatic PLHIV (People Living With HIV) and pre-emptive treatment with fluconazole can decrease the burden of cryptococcal disease. We conducted this study to find the prevalence of asymptomatic cryptococcal antigenemia in India and its correlation with mortality in PLHIV. Method and material: This was a prospective observational study. HIV infected ART naïve patients with age of ≥ 18 years who had CD4 counts ≤ 100 /µL were included and serum cryptococcal antigen test was done. These patients were followed for six months to look for the development of Cryptococcal meningitis and mortality. Results: A total of 116 patients were analysed. Asymptomatic cryptococcal antigenemia was detected in 5.17% patients and it correlated with increased risk of cryptococcal meningitis and mortality on follow-up in PLHIV. Conclusion: Serum cryptococcal positivity is correlated with increased risk of Cryptococcal meningitis and mortality in PLHIV. We recommend the screening of asymptomatic PLHIV with CD4 ≤ 100/µL for serum cryptococcal antigen, so that pre-emptive treatment can be initiated to reduce morbidity and mortality.


Open Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-174
Author(s):  
Lei Lei ◽  
Liu Yang ◽  
Yang-yang Xu ◽  
Hua-fei Chen ◽  
Ping Zhan ◽  
...  

Abstract Hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the lung (HAL) is a rare malignant tumor that is defined as a primary alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-producing lung carcinoma. We aimed to identify prognostic factors associated with the survival of patients with HAL using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. We collected data from patients diagnosed with HAL, adenocarcinoma (ADC), and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lung between 1975 and 2016 from the SEER database. The clinical features of patients with ADC and SCC of the lung were also analyzed. The clinical features of HALs were compared to ADCs and SCCs. A chi-square test was used to calculate the correlations between categorical variables, and a t test or Mann–Whitney U test was used for continuous variables. The Kaplan–Meier method and Cox regression analysis were used to identify the prognostic factors for the overall survival (OS) of HALs. Two-tailed p values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Sixty-five patients with HAL, 2,84,379 patients with ADC, and 1,86,494 with SCC were identified from the SEER database. Fewer males, advanced stages, and more chemotherapy-treated HALs were found. Compared to patients with SCC, patients with HAL were less likely to be male, more likely to be in an advanced stage, and more likely to receive chemotherapy (p < 0.05). The American Joint Committee on Cancer staging was the only prognostic factor for OS in patients with HAL, and stage IV was significantly different from other stages (hazard ratio = 0.045, 95% confidence interval: 0.005–0.398, p = 0.005). Males with HAL were more likely to receive radiotherapy compared to females with HAL (61.8 vs 31.5%, p = 0.034). Younger patients with HAL were more likely to receive chemotherapy (59.4 + 10.2 years vs 69 + 11.3 years, p = 0.001). The primary tumor size of HAL was associated with the location of the primary lesion (p = 0.012). No conventional antitumor therapies, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, were shown to have a significant survival benefit in patients with HAL (p > 0.05). This study showed that stage IV was the only prognostic factor for OS in HALs compared to other clinicopathologic factors. Conventional antitumor therapies failed to show survival benefit; thus, a more effective method by which to treat HAL is needed. Interestingly, the clinical features and the location of the primary lesion were shown to be associated with primary tumor size and treatment in patients with HAL, which have not been reported before.


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