Membranous Cryptococcic Nasopharyngitis (Cryptococcus Neoformans)

AS A HUMAN disease cryptococcosis is found in many different areas of the world. It causes pulmonary infection, deep-seated abscesses, and skin lesions of a nodular type, and, more frequently in the Southern countries, it produces a low-grade type of fatal subacute meningitis. The malady is also known as torulosis, or European blastomycosis, and as Busse-Buschke disease.1In the central nervous system the meningitis is slowly progressive, and is characterized by dizziness, vertigo, and stiff neck, with pain in the back and neck. There is a low fever and slow pulse, with the symptoms often simulating meningeal tuberculosis, with which it is often confused. Adults are most frequently affected. According to Platt and Eynon,2who have made an excellent summary of cryptococcic infections, the first report of the condition was made by Sanfelice, and in 1901 Buillemin recorded the organism in the fungi group. The first case of