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Cryptococcal meningitis persists as key driver of death in AIDS
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SAN FRANCISCO — Despite the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy, cryptococcal meningitis remained a significant cause of death in patients with AIDS who were treated in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Panama.
“There must be implementation strategies to prevent this opportunistic infection,” the researchers wrote in the study abstract. These findings were presented this week at the 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Researchers conducted a descriptive retrospective study that assessed 5-year data on 28 patients (17 men; 11 women) with cryptococcal meningitis and AIDS who were admitted to the Hospital Santo Tomas in Panama from 2007 to 2011. The mean age of the patients was 31.6 years and 36% had initiated HAART at the time of cryptococcal meningitis diagnosis.
All patients were assigned amphotericin B biweekly or weekly.
In-hospital mortality was 50%. Recurrence of cryptococcal meningitis occurred in five patients. Mean hospital stay was 22.6 days. The most common clinical presentation of cryptococcal meningitis was headache in 96.4% of cases. This was followed by vomiting (82.1%) and fever (42.9%).
For more information:
González E. #H-220. Presented at: 52nd ICAAC; Sept. 9-12, 2012; San Francisco.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.