Central nervous system paracoccidioidomycosis: an overview.

Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is an infectious disease, endemic to subtropical areas of Central and South America, caused by the dimorphic fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. It is a chronic disease, mostly affecting adult males, with a mean patient age of 44 years. Central nervous system involvement (CNS PCM) has been found in 13% of the patients with systemic disease. We reviewed the clinical presentation, diagnosis techniques and treatments for CNS PCM.

Central Nervous System Paracoccidioidomycosis: an overview

Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is an infectious disease, endemic to subtropical areas of Central and South America, caused by the dimorphic fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. It is a chronic disease, mostly affecting adult males, with a mean patient age of 44 years. Central nervous system involvement (CNS PCM) has been found in 13 percent of the patients with systemic disease. We reviewed the clinical presentation, diagnosis techniques and treatments for CNS PCM.

Detection of circulating gp43 antigen in serum, cerebrospinal fluid, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of patients with paracoccidioidomycosis.

Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is an important systemic fungal disease, particularly among individuals living and working in rural areas of endemicity in Latin America, who, without antifungal therapy, may develop fatal acute or chronic infection. For such patients, the detection of antibody responses by immunodiffusion is of limited value due to false-negative results. In contrast, the detection of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis gp43 circulating antigen may represent a more practical approach to the rapid diagnosis of the disease. Accordingly, an inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (inh-ELISA) was developed for the detection of a 43-kDa P. brasiliensis-specific epitope incorporating a species-specific murine monoclonal antibody. With sera from patients with acute and chronic forms of the disease (n = 81), the overall sensitivity of the test was found to be 95.1%, while specificity was found to be 97.5% compared to that with normal human sera from blood donors (n = 93) and sera from patients with other chronic fungal infections (histoplasmosis [n = 33] and cryptococcosis [n = 20]). The inh-ELISA detected circulating antigen in 100% of patients with the acute form of PCM and in 95.31 and 100% of patients with the chronic multifocal and unifocal forms of PCM according to the patient's clinical presentation. Cerebrospinal fluid from 14 patients with neuroparacoccidioidomycosis and 13 samples of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with pulmonary unifocal PCM were also tested for gp43 detection, with the test showing 100% sensitivity and specificity. This novel, highly specific inh-ELISA represents a significant addition to the existing tests for the diagnosis of PCM.

Anti-gp43 antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with central nervous system involvement by paracoccidioidomycosis.

Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is a chronic granulomatous infectious disease, endemic in subtropical areas of Central and South America. The diagnosis of the central nervous system (CNS) involvement with PCM (neuroparacoccidioidomycosis [NPCM]) frequently is difficult. A definitive diagnosis usually is made by visualization or isolation of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis from CNS biopsy or necropsy material. In the present study, we determined the presence of anti-gp43 antibodies in the cerebrospinalfluid (CSF) of patients with CNS involvement in PCM by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 9 cases of NPCM and 15 control cases. ELISA anti-gp43 was compared with double immunodiffusion (DID). ELISA anti-gp43 was positive in 8 (89%) of 9 CSF samples from patients with NPCM and negative in all CSF samples of the control group. DID was negative in all CSF samples from patients with NPCM and control samples. ELISA anti-gp43 in CSF samples is better than DID for the diagnosis of NPCM. It is a sensitive and specific diagnostic method and has high predictive values. To our knowledge, this is thefirst time ELISA anti-gp43 was applied to CSF.

[Paracoccidioidomycosis meningitis: case report]. / Meningite paracoccidioidomicótica: relato de caso.

The involvement of the central nervous system in paracoccidioidomycosis and its meningeal form of clinical presentation have rarely been described. This is a case report of a 23 years old man who developed paracoccidioidomycosis meningitis achieved by fungus' presence in direct research and culture of cerebrospinal fluid. The meningeal form of paracoccidioidomycosis, its laboratorial and imaging diagnostic are discussed, and the importance of the routine investigation of the fungus is emphasized.