Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
College/Unit
School of Medicine
Department/Program/Center
Medicine
Abstract
A 44-year-old female presented with a 3-month history of headache, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. Her past medical history was significant for long-standing intravenous drug abuse. Shortly after admission, the patient became hypertensive and febrile, with fever as high as 38.8 8C. The lumbar puncture profile supported an infectious process; however multiple cultures of blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) did not initially show growth of organisms. Finally after 9 days of incubation, a CSF culture showed evidence of a few colonies of Candida albicans. To confirm the diagnosis, preserved CSF from that sample was tested for (1!3)-b-D-glucan, showing levels >500 pg/ml. This report illustrates a rare complication of intravenous drug use in an immunocompetent patient and demonstrates the utility of (1!3)-b-D-glucan testing in possible Candida meningitis.
Digital Commons Citation
Farrugia, Mark K.; Fogha, Evan P.; Miah, Abdul R.; Yednock, Joel; and Palmer, H. Carl, "Candida Meningitis in an Immunocompetent Patient Detected Through (1!3)-beta-D-glucan" (2016). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 1910.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/1910
Source Citation
Farrugia, M. K., Fogha, E. P., Miah, A. R., Yednock, J., Palmer, H. C., & Guilfoose, J. (2016). Candida meningitis in an immunocompetent patient detected through (1→3)-beta-d-glucan. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 51, 25–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2016.08.020
Comments
2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/).