Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Extreme hyperferritenemia in an AIDS patient with disseminated histoplasmosis

2008; Elsevier BV; Volume: 57; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jinf.2008.07.011

1532-2742

Praveen Guturu, Juan C. Sarria,

Trace Elements in Health

Even though few case reports have described an association between extreme hyperferritinemia (level >10,000 ng/ml) and disseminated histoplasmosis in AIDS patients, the clinical significance of this association is unclear. 1 Levitz S.M. Mark E.J. Ko J.P. Kretsinger K. Colvin R.B. Caliendo A.M. et al. A 19-year-old man with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and persistent fever – disseminated histoplasmosis. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. N Eng J Med. 1998; 339: 1835-1843 Crossref PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar , 2 Kirn D.H. Fredericks D. McCutchan J.A. Stites D. Shuman M. Marked elevation of the serum ferritin is highly specific for Disseminated Histoplasmosis in AIDS. AIDS. 1995; 9: 1204-1205 Crossref PubMed Scopus (13) Google Scholar , 3 Remaley A.T. Goodman D.B.P. Markedly increased concentrations of ferritin in AIDS patient with disseminated Histoplasmosis. Clin Chem. 1990; 36: 1992-1993 PubMed Google Scholar , 4 McKenzie S.W. Means R.T. Extreme hyperferritinemia in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus is not a highly specific marker for disseminated histoplasmosis. Clin Infect Dis. 1997; 24: 519-520 Crossref PubMed Scopus (10) Google Scholar We report an AIDS patient from a histoplasmosis endemic area in whom this laboratory finding, along with a characteristic clinical presentation, raised suspicion of progressive disseminated histoplasmosis resulting in prompt initiation of antifungal therapy before confirmatory test results were available. The role of extreme hyperferritinemia in the initial evaluation of AIDS patients with disseminated histoplasmosis is discussed.