Fatal fungaemia due to Cryptococcus albidus in an elderly diabetic woman presenting with pleural effusion

• Main Authors: Giovanni Rodríguez-Leguizamón, Eliana Coque-Burgos, Omar Espitia-Castro, Carolina Firacative
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo
• Series: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
• Subjects: pleural effusion; cryptococcus; fungemia; diabetes mellitus, type 2; elderly; colombia
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0036-46652020000100507&lng=en&tlng=en
• ISSN: 0036-4665; 1678-9946

ABSTRACT This is a fatal case of fungaemia due to Cryptococcus albidus in an elderly woman with type 2 diabetes mellitus who presented pleural effusion as the only clinical presentation. Not only infections of the pleura are uncommon presentations of pulmonary cryptococcosis, but these infections due to non-C. neoformans species are extremely rare. This report places C. albidus on the growing number of disseminated mycosis-causing agents in diabetic patients.