When compared with endoscopic thoracic sympathetic clipping at the T2 or T2+3 levels, endoscopic thoracic sympathetic clipping at the T3+4 level was associated with a higher satisfaction rate, a lower rate of severe compensatory sweating, and a trend toward fewer subsequent reversal procedures. Subjective reversibility of adverse effects after endoscopic thoracic sympathetic clipping was seen in approximately half of the patients who underwent endoscopic removal of surgical clips. Although yet to be supported by electrophysiologic studies, reversal of sympathetic clipping seems to provide acceptable results and should be considered in selected patients.
We report two cases in which Cryptococcus laurentii was isolated from surgically resected pulmonary lesions but the cryptococcal cells in tissue reacted positively with a specific fluorescent antibody (FA) conjugate for Cryptococcus neoformans. Both patients had no apparent host defense defects. In both cases, multiple cryptococcal isolates were obtained from tissue, and yeastlike cells consistent with C. neoformans were seen in direct histology. The isolates were identified by assimilation patterns and standard procedures including phenoloxidase reactions. Since C. laurentii was consistently isolated by using stringent procedures, it was considered unlikely that the fungus represented surgical or laboratory contamination. Its presence may be the result of dual infection not detected by FA, but other possible explanations exist. The results show the value of the FA test in diagnostic mycology and call into question previous reports of cryptococci other than C. neoformans as agents of infection. There have been numerous reports over the years of Cryptococcus species other than C. neoformans causing human infection (Table 1). Isolates in these cases have most often been obtained from body sites which characteristically have been associated with C. neoformans infection. For example, in 6 of 12 published cases, isolates were obtained from cerebrospinal fluid (Table 1) while in 3 other cases, non-C. neoformans isolates were recovered from pulmonary sources. In 11 of the 12 cases, the species isolated was either C. albidus or C. Iaurentii, both of which are commonly isolated from normal skin (14, 17) and indoor and outdoor air (20, 31). Recently, we investigated two cases strongly suggestive of pulmonary infection by C. laurentii. In both instances, while multiple isolates of C. laurentii were obtained from surgically resected lung tissue, C. neoformans was not isolated. Fluorescent antibody staining (FA) techniques, however, indicated that the fungus present in the tissues was C. neoformans. These unusual findings suggest that a reassessment of the literature with respect to infections supposedly caused by Cryptococcus species other than C. neoformans is in order and that the clinical ecology of such infections requires clarification. CASE REPORTS Case 1. Over a 2-year period prior to admission, a 54-yearold woman resident of Ontario, Canada, experienced four
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.