[Cryptococcosis in hematology practice]

To study the clinical manifestations of cryptococcosis, its diagnostic features, and treatment results in patients with hemoblastoses.

The study included adult patients with cryptococcosis treated at the Hematology Research Center (HRC) in 2005 to 2011. The diagnosis of cryptococcosis was established on the basis of isolation of Cryptococcus neoformans from a blood culture or determination of positive cryptococcal antigen in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with infection symptoms.

During 7 years, 19 patients aged 19 to 68 years (median 47 years) were diagnosed as having cryptococcosis. In the pattern of cryptococcosis, there was a preponderance of patients with lymphoma (31%) and those with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (26%) at the stages of hemoblastosis remission induction (32%) and consolidation (26%). The diagnosis was made in 9 (47%) patients at the Intensive Care Department, HRC. The major risk factors of cryptococcosis were previous cytostatic drug exposure (68%), use of immunosuppressive and glucocorticoid drugs (63%), and granulocytopenia (42%). Seventeen (78%) patients were diagnosed with cryptococcal meningitis or meningoencephalitis; 1 patient had cryptococcal sepsis and 1 patient had possible cryptococcal pneumonia. All the patients were given antifungal agents. Amphotericin B, fluconazole, and a combination of antimycotics were used as first-line drugs in 16 (84%), 1 (5.5%), and 2 (10.5%), respectively. When their health became better, the patients were treated with voriconazole or fluconazole. Within 30 days after the diagnosis of cryptococcosis, 5 (26%) patients died; of them 2 had tumor progression concurrent with infection.

In cryptococcosis, the central nervous system is predominantly involved in the infectious process. The determination of cryptococcal antigen in CSF is a necessary diagnostic component in meningitis and meningoencephalitis in patients with blood system tumors, lymphatic ones in particular. When cryptococcosis is timely diagnosed and treated, its mortality, when the tumor is controlled, is lower than that in other invasive mycoses.