Five case of intestinal cryptosporidiosis with pulmonary involvement in patients with AIDS are reported. The diagnosis was based on the recognition of acid-fast oocysts in sputum or aspirated bronchial material and stool specimens. Coughing and excess secretions were present in all cases. Four patients had other associated pulmonary pathogens: two Mycobacterium tuberculosis, one Mycobacterium fortuitum and one Cytomegalovirus + Pneumocystis carinii; all of them had a previous (three cases) or simultaneous (one case) diagnosis of intestinal cryptosporidiosis, presenting with diarrhoea and vomiting. In the fifth patient Cryptosporidium was the only pulmonary pathogen found in a bronchial aspirate, and the onset of diarrhoea was 1 month after respiratory detection. Fifty-seven cases of respiratory cryptosporidiosis have been reported since 1980. In 17 of them, no other pathogen was found. Diarrhoea was present in 77% of the patients, cough in 77%, dyspnea in 58%, expectoration in 54%, fever in 45%, thoracic pain in 33%.

No abstract

No abstract

The study presented here examined the efficacy of a commercially available qualitative immunochromatographic assay for detecting Cryptosporidium oocysts in stool samples. A total of 75 samples were tested, including 50 positive for Cryptosporidium spp. by acid-fast stain, 20 positive for other parasites ( Blastocystis hominis, Endolimax nana, Entamoeba coli, Giardia lamblia, Ascaris lumbricoides, Strongyloides stercoralis and Trichuris trichiura), and five negative samples. The observed sensitivity was 98%, while specificity was 100%; the detection threshold was near 1000 oocysts/ml. Correctly diagnosed positive samples included Cryptosporidium parvum genotypes 1 and 2, whereas the single false-negative sample corresponded to a Cryptosporidium meleagridis infection.

The seasonal distribution of cryptosporidiosis in children in Aragón, a region in northeastern Spain, was determined. Over a period of six years (October 1988 to September 1994), 10,034 stool samples from 4,508 children with gastrointestinal symptoms were analyzed for this purpose. The age of the patients ranged from 1 month to 14 years. Cryptosporidium oocysts were identified in 87 (1.93%) patients. Prevalence was highest (6.20%) in children aged 1 to 3 years old. The prevalence was significantly higher in the autumn-winter period (October to March) than in the spring-summer period (April to September) in the whole population (2.41% vs. 1.35%, p = 0.010) and in the 1- to 3-year-old age group (8.44% vs. 3.20%, p = 0.002), but not in the other age groups. A possible relationship of this pattern to attendance at child care centres is suggested.