Prevalence of HTLV-I antibody in pulmonary cryptococcosis.
A retrospective study was done to determine the prevalence of anti-HTLV-I antibodies in patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis. None of the 19 patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis had underlying immunodeficiency. Anti-HTLV-I antibody was present in 6 (32%) of 19 patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis, a significantly higher prevalence than found in patients with bronchial asthma (4 (7%) of 58) (p less than 0.01, chi-square test). No statistical difference was noted when anti-HTLV-I antibody seropositivity was compared to that of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (16% (17/105)), lung cancer (17% (22/129)) and pneumonia (9% (6/64)). A reduced cellular immunity as shown by lymphopenia, the CD4/CD8 ratio, and purified protein derivative skin test was found in only 1 (5%) of 19, 2 (12%) of 17, and 6 (33%) of 18 patients, respectively. These results do not explain the susceptibility to pulmonary cryptococcosis in HTLV-I carriers. This is the first report of high prevalence of pulmonary cryptococcosis in HTLV-I carriers and it raises the question whether HTLV-I carriers are more susceptible to opportunistic infections and other malignancies probably due to subtle immunological abnormalities.
Kohno
S
S
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine.
Koga
H
H
Kaku
M
M
Yasuoka
A
A
Maesaki
S
S
Tanaka
K
K
Mitsutake
K
K
Matsuda
H
H
Araki
J
J
Hara
K
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003453:Cryptococcosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D008174:Lung Diseases, Parasitic / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011859:Radiography; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies