Correlation between computed tomography features and clinical characteristics in HIV-negative patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis

Objective: To analyze the correlations between CT features and clinical characteristics in HIV-negative patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis. Methods: Medical records of 16 HIV-negative patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis diagnosed at our institution were retrospectively analyzed. CT examinations were obtained with a multidetector row CT scanner. The clinical characteristics of 7 patients with nodules or masses without ground-glass opacity (GGO)/consolidation type were compared with those of 9 patients with inclusive GGO or consolidation type. Results: Host status was immunocompromised (81.2%) in most of the patients. 6 (37.5%) patients were asymptomatic. The most frequent CT findings were one or more nodules (87.5%), GGO (42.9%), and consolidations (18.8%). Most lesions were located in the lower lobes. The levels of hemoglobin (12.0 [8.9–16.5] vs 8.4 [4.4–14.9]) and platelets (24.6 [10.2–36.0] vs 8.4 [1.4–30.3]) were significantly lower in patients with inclusive GGO or consolidation type compared with those of patients without GGO or consolidation (p = 0.044 and p = 0.023, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference in sex, age, host status, body mass index, symptoms at initial consultation, HbA1c, WBC, lymphocytes, albumin, ESR, CRP, and IgG. Conclusions: GGO or consolidation was more common in HIV-negative patients with cryptococcosis when they suffered from anemia and thrombocytopenia