Central nervous system infection due to Cryptococcus gattii sensu lato in India: Analysis of clinical features, molecular profile and antifungal susceptibility
2017
Summary
Cryptococcus gattii
species complexhas evolved as a pathogen in the last two decades causing infection among both immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts. We aimed to analyse the clinical features of CNS infection caused by C. gattii
sensulato, molecular and antifungal susceptibility profile of this pathogen. Cases diagnosed to have CNS
cryptococcosiswere included in the study.
Cryptococcusrecovered from patient's specimen was identified by standard protocol. Species confirmation,
mating typeand molecular type determination were performed by PCR based methods. Antifungal susceptibility was tested in VITEK2C to amphotericin B, 5-
flucytosine,
fluconazoleand
voriconazole. Among 199 cases, 20 (10%) were due to C. gattii, comprising of 75% cryptococcal meningitis and 25% cryptococcoma cases. Young adult males were commonly affected. Headache and vomiting were prominent symptoms and 50% were immunocompromised. Among the isolates, 75%, 20% and 5% were C. tetragattii, C. gattii
sensustricto and C. bacillisporus respectively and all had
mating typeα. Four (20%) isolates of C. tetragattii and the only isolate of C. bacillisporus were resistant to
fluconazole. The most
common speciesisolated from south India is C. tetragattii. The study contributes to the epidemiology of C. gattii and reiterates the need for genotyping and antifungal susceptibility testing.
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