Postpartum cryptococcal pulmonary lesion incidentally discovered during a pulmonary-embolism evaluation of a 28-year-old Caucasian woman

Alesia Kaplan, Daniel G. Berntson, Patricia Ferrieri

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report a case of localized pulmonary cryptococcal infection in a 28-year-old Caucasian woman who was 1 month postpartum at the time of her arrival at the hospital. The patient reported right-side chest pain; on further work up, she was found to have an incidental pulmonary lesion of the left lower lung lobe. Surgical pathology examination and microbiology studies revealed localized cryptococcal infection. Cases of cryptococcal pneumonia in pregnant women and in the postpartum period have been described in the literature. However, cryptococcal infections are usually associated with various immunocompromised states, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Because pregnancy is associated with physiological immunosuppression, cryptococcal pneumonia should be considered in pregnant women, or women in the postpartum period, who have respiratory symptoms.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)69-73
Number of pages5
JournalLaboratory medicine
Volume46
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2015

Keywords

  • Cryptococcus neoformans
  • Postpartum
  • Pregnancy

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