Related Experiment Videos
Cryptococcus neoformans varieties as agents of cryptococcosis in Brazil
R Rozenbaum1, A J Gonçalves, B Wanke
1Serviço de Doenças Infecciosas e Parasitarárias, Hospital dos Servidores do Estado, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Abstract:
The study of the clinical isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans from 83 Brazilian patients with disseminated cryptococcosis showed that 75 were C. neoformans var. neoformans and 8 were var. gattii. Twenty-seven isolates were serotyped; all 19 var. neoformans were serotype A and all 8 var. gattii were serotype B. The correlation of the varieties of C. neoformans with the presence or not of hosts predisposing conditions to the mycosis showed that: (1) cryptococcosis caused by gattii variety occurred in 7 (58.3%) of the 12 nonimmunosuppressed patients, and (2) cryptococcosis caused by neoformans variety occurred in 65 (98.5%) of the 66 AIDS patients and in all 5 patients with other immunosuppressive conditions. The comparison of the distribution of the gattii and neoformans varieties between the nonimmunosuppressed and immunosuppressed patients showed a significant statistical difference (p < 0.01).