Cryptococcal meningitis: our experience in 24 black patients
Pillay, N.; Simjee, A.E.
South African Medical Journal 50(41): 1604-1606
1976
ISSN/ISBN: 0256-9574 PMID: 982216 Document Number: 104184
Among the 24 were 21 adults and 3 children. Slightly more males were affected but the age distribution was even. The common clinical presentations were headache, neck stiffness, mental changes, cranial nerve palsies and papilloedema. Diagnosis was made from identification of Cryptococcus neoformans in cerebrospinal fluid in 21 patients and in pathological tissue in 3. A significant percentage of patients presented with an initial polymorphonuclear leucocyte predominance in the spinal fluid. Tuberculosis was the common co-existing disease (3). Despite therapy with amphotericin B with or without 5-fluorocytosine, mortality rate was still 58%.