[Cryptococcal meningitis and AIDS. Clinical description of 10 patients]

We have studied 10 patients with cryptococcal meningitis and AIDS. Nine of them were intravenous drug users and four have been previously diagnosed of AIDS. In 60% of them cryptococcal meningitis was the first opportunistic infection, and as group represented only 6.3% of our 158 patients with AIDS on the same period. The most common symptoms were: malaise (100%), headache (80%), fever (60%), meningeal signs (50%). Two of them had focal neurological disease. CSF culture and serum cryptococcal antigen test were positive in 90%, the Indian ink in 77% and blood cultures in 30% of the cases, while indian ink preparation did it in 77%. MRI showed bilateral small lesions, deeply located, in 3 cases; it was also useful to prove optical tract lesions in a patient with blindness as a result of cryptococcal meningitis. We had treatment successes in 80% of the cases, all patients being treated with amphotericin B, alone in 4 and amphotericin B plus fluorocytosine in 6. Two patients died within the first 2 weeks. Maintenance therapy with fluconazole was effective and well tolerated, with 3 patients dying from causes other than cryptococcal meningitis. We recorded a survival rate over 12 months in 33% of patients.