Cryptococcus neoformans is commonly associated with meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised patients and occasionally in apparently healthy individuals. Duration and regimen of antifungal treatment vary depending on the nature of the host and extent of disease and CNS shunts are placed in persistently elevated intracranial pressures. Recurrence of infection after initial treatment is not uncom...

CT scans of 35 patients with intracranial cryptococcal infection were reviewed retrospectively. Studies were normal in 43% of the patients. Positive findings in others included diffuse atrophy in 34%, mass lesions (cryptococcoma) in 11%, hydrocephalus in 9%, and diffuse cerebral edema in 3%. Two unusual types of cryptococcoma were encountered, namely gelatinous pseudocysts and an intraventricul...

To our knowledge and literature search, concurrent cryptococcal meningitis and neurosyphilis in a patient have rarely been reported. Here, we report a 37-year-old male with HIV infection presented with headache and dizziness for 5 days along with memory difficulty and personality changes for about 1 week. During the hospital stay, cryptococcal meningitis was confirmed with positive cerebral spi...

AIDS-related cryptococcal meningitis continues to cause a substantial burden of death in low and middle income countries. Better diagnostics allow detection of cryptococcosis in the asymptomatic phase and using these technologies to screen at-risk persons would likely reduce mortality. The World Health Organization recommends cryptococcal antigen screening among populations with a prevalence of...

An immunocompetent 51 year-old female presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with a chief complaint of transient loss of consciousness and was found to have cryptococcal meningitis. She complained of general fatigue and a 'cramping' sensation in her right arm for one week. The physical exam was significant for the presence of a right homonymous hemianopsia and the absence of fever or signs ...

BACKGROUND Acute vision loss in the post-partum period can occur due to many reasons. Eclampsia, posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES), pituitary apoplexy, and central serous retinopathy are some of the important causes. Cryptococcal meningitis as a cause of acute vision loss in the post-partum period has not been mentioned in literature. CASE PRESENTATION A 25-year-old female p...

Cryptococcosis remains the leading cause of fungal meningitis worldwide, caused primarily by the pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. Symptomatic cryptococcal infections typically affect immunocompromised patients. However, environmental exposure to cryptococcal spores is ubiquitous and most healthy individuals are thought to harbor infections from early childhood onwards that are either resolved,...

Cryptococcal infection is a rare, yet well recognized complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We present a case of mesenteric and retroperitoneal cryptococcal lymphadenitis resulting in the obstruction of the stomach and proximal duodenum in a patient suffering from SLE, while recently she did not receive any immunosuppressive treatment. A 42-yr-old woman was admitted due to high fe...

Cryptococcus neoformans and cryptococcal surface polysaccharides influenced C5aR expression on human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN). Encapsulated and acapsular strains produced dramatically different effects. Treatment of PMN with acapsular cryptococci up-regulated C5aR expression; whereas treatment with encapsulated cells suppressed C5aR expression. Glucuronoxylomannan (GXM), the principa...

Cryptococcus is a very invasive fungal pathogen that usually involves the central nervous system. Cryptococcal meningomyelitis is very rare, even in patients with AIDS. Cryptococcus infection presenting as a spinal cord syndrome has been reported, but all of these cases were vertebral osteomyelitis. We report on an immunocompetent 49-year-old man with cryptococcal meningoencephalitis associated...