OCULAR CRYPTOCOCCOSIS - EXPERIMENTAL AND CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 237  (2-3) , 378-394
Abstract
It was previously demonstrated that these are strains of Cryptococcus neoformans which, after i.p. inoculation, are capable of surviving in mouse brains without causing any apparent clinical symptom; only in about 4% of the animals the fatal involvement of the CNS occurred. The present investigations suggest that the selective involvement of eye, i.e., formation of intraocular cryptococcoma, with subsequent blindness is also possible under similar experimental conditions. A short-lived uremia caused by i.m. injection of 0.2 ml glycerin could enhance the rate of the selective involvement of the CNS including the eye. The uremia was controlled by the auxanographic method using Staib''s technique of serum-residual-nitrogen-auxanogram and employing the strain used for infecting the mice. These animal experiments are discussed in connection with a human case of intraocular cryptococcosis in which the only known basic disease was uremia of unknown origin. The spontaneously healing cryptococcosis detected in this case after the treatment of uremia, has been discussed. Cases of ocular cryptococcosis described in the world literature were also briefly discussed.