{"title":"Pulmonary cryptococcosis with headache as the first presentation: A case report.","authors":"Ting Xu, Shuai Luo","doi":"10.1515/biol-2025-1119","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pulmonary cryptococcosis (PC) is an invasive fungal infection caused by <i>Cryptococcus neoformans</i> or <i>Cryptococcus gattii</i>. Its clinical presentation and radiological findings are often non-specific, making early diagnosis challenging. Herein, the case of a 44-year-old male who presented with dizziness and headache is reported. Initial cranial magnetic resonance imaging and chest computed tomography (plain and contrast-enhanced) suggested lung cancer with brain metastasis. A definitive diagnosis was established only after a lung mass biopsy, followed by a cytological smear and histopathological analysis, confirmed PC. The patient was treated with antifungal therapy postoperatively and responded well. This case underscores the importance of considering PC in differential diagnoses to enable prompt diagnosis and treatment, potentially reducing associated mortality.</p>","PeriodicalId":19605,"journal":{"name":"Open Life Sciences","volume":"20 1","pages":"20251119"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12355356/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Open Life Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/biol-2025-1119","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Pulmonary cryptococcosis (PC) is an invasive fungal infection caused by Cryptococcus neoformans or Cryptococcus gattii. Its clinical presentation and radiological findings are often non-specific, making early diagnosis challenging. Herein, the case of a 44-year-old male who presented with dizziness and headache is reported. Initial cranial magnetic resonance imaging and chest computed tomography (plain and contrast-enhanced) suggested lung cancer with brain metastasis. A definitive diagnosis was established only after a lung mass biopsy, followed by a cytological smear and histopathological analysis, confirmed PC. The patient was treated with antifungal therapy postoperatively and responded well. This case underscores the importance of considering PC in differential diagnoses to enable prompt diagnosis and treatment, potentially reducing associated mortality.
期刊介绍：
Open Life Sciences (previously Central European Journal of Biology) is a fast growing peer-reviewed journal, devoted to scholarly research in all areas of life sciences, such as molecular biology, plant science, biotechnology, cell biology, biochemistry, biophysics, microbiology and virology, ecology, differentiation and development, genetics and many others. Open Life Sciences assures top quality of published data through critical peer review and editorial involvement throughout the whole publication process. Thanks to the Open Access model of publishing, it also offers unrestricted access to published articles for all users.
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