Cryptococcal Interstitial Pneumonia

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Abstract
The emergence of acute interstitial pneumonia in immunocompromised patients is a serious, often life-threatening event.1 A treatable cause of this syndrome is the yeast Cryptococcus neoformans. Although definitive diagnosis of invasive pulmonary infection by this organism rests on its demonstration in lung tissue,2 thrombocytopenia in heavily immunosuppressed patients may preclude biopsy procedures. Immunologic demonstration of cryptococcal polysaccharide capsular antigen in serum, by latex agglutination, is simple, rapid and conclusive proof of cryptococcosis, when the test is positive3 and when concurrent control assays for rheumatoid factors are done.4 In addition, in studies of serum and cerebrospinal fluid of 30 patients . . .