Pulmonary Cryptococcosis Presenting as Endobronchial Lesions in a Patient under Corticosteroid Treatment

Abstract

We report a case of pulmonary cryptococcosis in an immunocompromised patient who had focal endobronchial lesions. When we first examined her, she complained of a productive cough that had lasted for two months. Seventeen months prior to this examination, she had been diagnosed with Sjogren syndrome and Sweet syndrome. Since that diagnosis, her condition had been maintained with low-dose prednisolone. We performed a chest CT scan, which revealed a mass, 3 cm in diameter, in the upper lobe of her left lung. A bronchoscopic examination revealed 3 white, elevated lesions in the upper lobe bronchus of her left lung. After 40 days of treatment with fluconazole, the shadow of her lung mass decreased in size to that of a scarred lesion and her white, elevated bronchial lesions disappeared.