Objective To investigate clinical characteristics of community acquired pulmonary crypyococcosis（PC）.Methods A total of 30 cases of PC diagnosed at Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University from Jan 2003 to Dec 2007 were retrospectively analysed.All cases were identified by pathological study.Results The patients consisted of 19 males and 11 females，with median age of 44 years（16 to 70 years），66.7% of whom without underlying deseases and with normal immune function.9 patients（30%） were asymptomatic，and 21 patients（70%） had respiratory and/or constitutional symptoms.The most common symptoms were dry cough（16.7%），expectoration（46.7%），fever（23.3%），chest pain（13.3%） and dyspnea on exertion（13.3%）.All symptoms were mild and often showed a self-limiting trend.The common imaging features were nodule and mass，either solitary or multiple（53.3%），infiltrates and consolidation（40%） or diffused and mixed lesions.Non-caseous granulomas was the main character of patholgical study（96.7%），in which 93.1% with multinucleated giant cells containing abundant vacuolus yeast forms with the periodic acid schiff（PAS） reaction and/or Grocott Gomori’s methenamine silver（GMS） staining postive.Only one case found Cryptococcus neoformans spores in biopsy tissue smear and another in sputum smear.16.7% of the patients had positive biopsy tissue cultures for Cryptococcus neoformans，and 3.3% were positive of sputum cultures.15 patients underwent latex agglutination test for pulmonary cryptococcosis，and 93.3% were positive.Conclusions Some immunocompetent healthy people may compromised with community acquired PC with mild symptoms or even not at all and heterogeneous imaging appearance.Pathology，etiology，and serology were valuable diagnostic tools.
Objective To invesitgate the clinical characteristics, radiology, diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary cryptococcosis ( PC) . Methods The patients with PC diagnosed form January 2000 to January 2009 from three hospitals of Shanghai and Nanjing were retrospectively analyzed. Results A total of 34 patients were diagnosed, with 24 males and 10 females, and an average age of ( 40. 6 ±13. 5) years old ( ranged from 3 to 72 years) . Twelve patients had underlying diseases and 28 patients had symptoms. The main symptoms were pyrexia ( 20 cases) , cough and expectoration ( 22 cases) , chest pain ( 8 cases) , chest tightness ( 5 cases) , and hemoptysis ( 4 cases) . Seven cases were diagnosed as systemic pulmonary cryptococcosis, in which 3 cases were complicated with cryptococcal meningitis ( CM) , and 3 cases with CM and cryptococcal septicemia, and 1 cases with third dorsal vertebra Busse-Buschke disease. Radiologic manifestations showed multiformand nonspecific lesion such as nodus or nodules in 17 cases, pneumonia in 10 cases, mixed appearance in 6 cases, and diffused military nodes in 1 case. The diagnosis was confirmed by pathological study in 27 cases, including 12 cases by thoracotomy, 10 cases by percutaneous lung biopsy, 1 cases by thoracic vertebra biopsy, and 4 cases by bronchoscope. Ten cases were confirmed with culture positive or smear positive. Six cases were treated by surgery alone, 21 cases by antimycotic drug therapy alone, and 6 cases by drug therapy after surgery. One case quitted after the diagnosis. The duration of treatment varied from 2 weeks to 2 years. One case died in the hospital, 25 cases recovered after discharge, and 8 cases were lost to follow-up. Conclusions PC is likely to be misdiagnosed due to atypical clinical and image manifestations. The diagnosis is always comfirmed on the pathological and microbiological study.
Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics and diagnostic methods of primary pulmonary cryptococcosis. Methods The medical records of adult HIV-negative patients diagnosed with primary pulmonary cryptococcosis between 2006 and March 2011 were reviewed retrospectively. Results 90 patients were enrolled in the study. The mean( ±SD) age was ( 46. 3 ±12. 42) years( range 19 to 71 years) . The clinical manifestations of pulmonary cryptococcosis were mild without obvious physical signs. The imaging features can be classified into 3 types. Nodule or mass type was common. The right lung and lower lobe were most commonly involved. There was no significant difference of the lesion type between the groups with or without underlying diseases ( P gt;0. 05) . Sputum or BALF culture for Cryptococcus neoformans yield no positive result. The main diagnostic methods were video-assisted thoracic surgery( VATS, 42 cases) , transbronchial lung biopsy( TBLB, 28 cases) and transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy( TNAB, 14 cases) . The latex agglutination( LA) test yield positive results in 31 patients out of 48 patients( 64. 58% ) . The LA test positive group often used TBLB as diagnostic method( 64. 52% ) .Meanwhile the LA test negative group and the group without LA test often used thoracoscope as diagnostic method( 47. 06% and 76. 19% ) . There was significant difference in diagnostic method between the three groups( P lt;0. 05) . Conclusions It is not impossible to acquire pulmonary cryptococcosis in immunocompetent patients. The clinical manifestations and imaging features of pulmonary cryptococcosis were lack of characteristics. The diagnosis level can be improved by invasive examination such as TBLB and TNAB. The LA test for Cryptococcus neoformans can be used as an early noninvasive diagnostic method.
Objective To discuss the correlation between immune status and clinical characteristics in pulmonary cryptococcosis. Methods The clinical data of 32 non-AIDS patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis, diagnosed from August 2001 to October 2017 in Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, were retrospectively analyzed. The enrolled patients were divided into an immune-competent group with 13 cases and an immune-suppressed group with 19 cases. The clinical characteristics were compared between the two groups with different immune status. Results All 32 patients were treated for clinical symptoms. The main symptoms were cough, expectoration, fever, chest tightness, chest pain, and hemoptysis. There were no statistical differences between the two groups. The computed tomography of chest showed that there were 2 patients (6.3%) involving upper lung in the immune-competent group, and 5 patients (15.6%) in the immune-suppressed group. There were 9 patients (28.1%) involving lower lung in the immune-competent group, and 12 patients (37.5%) in the immune-suppressed group. There were 10 patients (31.3%) with nodular masses of lesions in the immune-competent group and none in the immune-suppressed group. There was 1 patient with infiltrating in the immune-competent group and 8 patients in the immune-suppressed group. There were 2 patients with mixed types of lesions in the immune-competent group and 11 patients in the immune-suppressed group. Five patients were complicated with cryptococcal meningitis, and 2 patients with eosinophilia. Conclusions The clinical characteristics of the patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis are not specific in difference immune status. The chest CT shows that the lesions of immune-competent patients are mainly nodular masses type, while lesions of immune-suppressed patients are mainly infiltrating shadow and mixed shadow. The treatment should be chose according to immune status.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the diagnostic value of cryptococcal antigen lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (CrAg-LFA) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) among pulmonary cryptococcosis (PC) patients.MethodsPatients from the Zhongshan Hospital, Xiamen University, Zhangzhou Municipal Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, and Quanzhou First Hospital of Fujian Medical University were enrolled prospectively from March 2015 to October 2018. They were confirmed without human immunodeficiency virus infection and were divided into non-PC group (236 cases) and PC group (72 cases). The PC was definitely diagnosed by histopathological evidence from lung biopsy. The CrAg-LFA and culture were performed in both the serum and BALF among the enrolled patients.ResultsAmong 72 PC patients, 54 had a positive serum CrAg-LFA, 1 had positive serum culture; 67 patients had a positive BALF CrAg-LFA, 9 had positive BALF culture. Among the non-PC group, only 1 patient had a weak positive serum CrAg-LFA, none had positive serum culture of PC; 236 cases non-PC patients underwent BALF CrAg-LFA detection, none had a positive BALF CrAg-LFA; none of the 121 cases who had BALF culture yielded a positive result in PC. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predicted value, and negative predicted value in serum were 75.0%, 99.6%, 98.2%, and 92.9%, respectively. Those above mentioned values in the BALF yielded 93.6%, 100.0%, 100.0%, and 97.9%, respectively. Among the PC group, the sensitivity was higher in BALF than that in serum (χ2=8.745, P<0.05).ConclusionsThe CrAg-LFA is a simple and rapid diagnostic method for PC. The diagnostic value of CrAg-LFA in the BALF is superior to that in serum and fungal culture among the PC patients. The positive BALF CrAg-LFA result is consistent with mycological positive results.
Objective To systematically review the CT characteristic differences between pulmonary cryptococcosis (PC) and lung cancer presenting as solitary nodules. Methods PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and SinoMed were searched to collect case-control studies of the patients with PC and lung cancer presenting as solitary nodules on CT. The search period was from databases establishment to December 2023. We conducted a meta-analysis on the included studies. Results A total of 7 studies were included, 342 PC patients, and 370 lung cancer patients. The meta-analysis results showed that compared with lung cancer, PC patients were more likely to have the following characteristics in CT (P<0.05): nodules located in the lower lobe of the lung [odds ratio (OR)=1.91, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.39, 2.62)], presence of bronchial inflation sign [OR=5.79, 95%CI (1.45, 23.21)], and halo sign [OR=6.64, 95%CI (2.87, 15.38)]. Compared with PC, lung cancer patients were more likely to have the following characteristics in CT (P<0.05): nodules located in the upper lobe of the lung [OR=0.52, 95%CI (0.35, 0.78)], presence of lobulation sign [OR=0.15, 95%CI (0.08, 0.27)], spiculation sign [OR=0.48, 95%CI (0.35, 0.65)], pleural indentation sign [OR=0.15, 95%CI (0.04, 0.50)], and vascular bundle sign [OR=0.20, 95%CI (0.05, 0.77)]. There was no statistically significant difference in CT between PC patients and lung cancer patients in terms of lesion size, relationship with pleura, vacuolar sign, cavity, and whether the broad base was connected to pleura (P>0.05). Conclusions For CT showing solitary nodules, PC nodules are more likely to be distributed in the lower lobe of the lungs, with bronchial inflation sign and halo sign. Lung cancer nodules are more likely to be distributed in the upper lobe of the lungs, with lobulation sign, spiculation sign, pleural indentation sign and vascular bundle sign.