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Medical Author:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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The medical caregiver should be informed of the possible exposure to Cryptococcus if the individual knows they have been in risk areas like logging sites, tropical regions, or the Pacific Northwest (Vancouver Island, Washington, or Oregon) or know their domestic pets or people who live in or visited the same regions as the patient have been diagnosed with cryptococcosis. This medical history will help the medical caregiver order additional tests as the initial physical exam often yields few if any diagnostic features.

Even if the patient has some visible findings such as skin lesions, or even pulmonary or bone lesions seen on X-rays, many other diseases (for example, histoplasmosis, toxoplasmosis, tuberculosis) may also have these findings. A CT scan or MRI of the brain may show focal areas of possible infection in the brain, but again many diseases may show similar findings.

However, serological testing of spinal fluid obtained by spinal puncture and blood may provide presumptive evidence of cryptococcosis if the person has symptoms of cryptococcosis.

Definitive diagnosis of cryptococcosis depends on isolating the fungus from an infected patient's tissue or bodily fluids or identifying the organisms in tissue biopsy samples. Further immunological testing such as PCR test for genetic material of the fungus can identify if the infection is caused by either C. neoformans or C. gattii.

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