• J. Med. Microbiol. · Oct 2018

    Correlation between serum cryptococcal antigen titre and meningitis in immunocompetent patients.

    • Ian Gassiep, Chaw Aye, Mark Armstrong, Theophilus I Emeto, Christopher S Heather, and Robert E Norton.
    • 2​School of Medicine, James Cook University, Douglas 4814, Australia.
    • J. Med. Microbiol. 2018 Oct 1; 67 (10): 1515-1518.

    AbstractThe aim of this paper was to determine the correlation between serum cryptococcal antigen and a diagnosis of cryptococcal meningitis in the immunocompetent cohort. A retrospective multicentre analysis of immunocompetent patients diagnosed and treated for cryptococcal meningitis between January 2000 and December 2017 was performed. Sixty-seven of the 143 cases of cryptococcosis occurred in immunocompetent patients. The serum cryptococcal antigen titre was significantly higher in the meningitis group [1 : 256 (IQR: 64-1024)] compared with that for non-meningitis patients [1 : 64 (IQR: 8-256)], P=0.012. The relative risk of meningitis with a serum cryptococcal antigen (CRAG) >1 : 64 was 1.8 (95 % CI: 1.15-2.82). This study demonstrates a clear correlation between serum cryptococcal antigen titre and meningitis. While the serum titre is not definitive for meningitis, in resource-limited settings or cases where lumbar puncture may be contraindicated, this evidence may aid diagnosis and subsequent therapeutic decisions.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…