Baseline
A total of 47 patients with AIDS-associated CM were
enrolled from October 1998 to March 2001. At baseline,
the median age was 31 years, 41 patients (87%) were male,
and 2 patients (4%) were on antiretroviral therapy. One of
them suspended the antiretroviral therapy 2 weeks before
the start of the study, and 1 patient began zidovudine and
lamivudine 3 months before CM diagnosis and continued
this treatment during the study. The median duration of
symptoms was 18 days, 13 patients (28%) had abnormal
mental status, and the median body mass index (BMI) was
19.4 kg/m2
. Systemic disease, defined as the presence of
any positive extraneural culture was found in 32 patients
(68%); 24 patients (51%) had a blood culture positive for
C. neoformans and 26 (55%) had a positive urine culture.
Nine out of 37 patients (24.3%) with respiratory symptoms
had a positive sputum culture. The median CSF antigen titer
was 4096, and titers were 1024 in 41 patients (87%).
The median of the CSF opening pressure was 250 mm H2O,
and 30 patients (64%) had a CSF opening pressure
200 mm H2O, as shown in Table 1.