Roy M, Roy AK, Upalakalin JN, Ahmad S. Isolated Non-Resolving Vulvar Lesion as a Presentation of Disseminated Histoplasmosis in a Woman with HIV.
Eur J Case Rep Intern Med 2020;
7:001814. [PMID:
33083360 DOI:
10.12890/2020_001814]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2020] [Accepted: 06/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Disseminated histoplasmosis is most commonly caused by Histoplasma capsulatum and is a known opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients. The clinical presentation of histoplasmosis varies from asymptomatic to a progressive disseminated form. Pulmonary and CNS involvement is common in disseminated histoplasmosis. Rarely, disseminated disease can present as vulvar lesion in the absence of pulmonary symptoms, causing a delay in diagnosis. As per our PubMed literature search, there have only been two reported cases where vulvar lesion was the only presenting symptom of disseminated disease. In our patient, a histopathological diagnosis was made with staining showing budding yeast forms of histoplasma.
LEARNING POINTS
Histoplasmosis can be a cause of isolated non-resolving vulvar lesion in immunocompromised patients.In patients at risk, we recommend work-up for disseminated histoplasmosis with urine histoplasma antigen and further imaging to rule out disseminated infection when histoplasma is identified on local biopsy samples.In patients from endemic regions and in non-resolving vulvar lesions, fungal infection should be considered.
Collapse