Cerebrospinal Fluid Microscopy as an Index for Predicting the Prognosis of Cryptococcal Meningitis Patients with and Without HIV

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the clinical data and quantitative cerebrospinal fluid for associations with the outcome of cryptococcal meningitis (CM) patients in the hospital. Patients & methods: We retrospectively analyzed a total of 139 CM patients comprising 108 without HIV and 31 with HIV admitted in a Jiang Xi hospital. Resμlts: We found that CM patients with the high fungal burden (≥10 yeasts/μl) (26.3%) had a worse prognosis than those with the low fungal burden (<10 yeasts/μl). (4.9%) (p = 0.0007 <0.05). Conclusion: In CM patients, a fungal burden of 10 yeasts/μl in the first cerebrospinal fluid test may be used as an indicator of patient prognosis, and we can personalize patients’ treatment based on the fungal burden to improve prognosis.

Keywords::

• cerebrospinal fluid microscopy
• cryptococcal meningitis
• epidemiology
• fungal burden
• HIV and non-HIV
• prognosis
• risk factors

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This article supported by Chinese Academy of Engineering (19-HN-XZ-06, 2019-XY-33, 2020-XY-61-01), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770161), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (17DZ2272900), Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning (2017ZZ01024-001), the Major National R&D Projects of the National Health Department (2018ZX10101003), the Shanghai Sailing Program (19YF1448000). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Additional information

Funding

This article supported by Chinese Academy of Engineering (19-HN-XZ-06, 2019-XY-33, 2020-XY-61-01), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770161), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (17DZ2272900), Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning (2017ZZ01024-001), the Major National R&D Projects of the National Health Department (2018ZX10101003), the Shanghai Sailing Program (19YF1448000). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.