Cryptococcal pulmonary infection in patients with AIDS: radiographic appearance

The clinical, laboratory, and radiographic findings in seven patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and cryptococcal pulmonary infections were reviewed. The infection was most commonly seen on radiographs as lymphadenopathy, interstitial infiltrates, or both. Interstitial infiltrates were commonly nodular. Large nodules or alveolar infiltrates, the most common findings at presentation in both immunocompetent patients and immunocompromised patients without AIDS, were not present in our series. Isolated pleural effusion was seen as the only radiographic finding in one case. Meningitis was present in six of seven cases and was neurologically silent in five of six cases. Cryptococcal pneumonia in AIDS patients should prompt a search for neurologically silent cryptococcal meningitis.