375. Cryptococcal Antigenemia in Advanced HIV Infection

BACKGROUND: Diagnostic importance of asymptomatic cryptococcal antigenemia is being increasingly recognized in the last few years. Recently, WHO (World Health Organization) has recommended routine screening of CrAg (cryptococcal antigen) among PLHA with CD4 ≤100/mm(3), albeit this procedure is not yet adopted by many developing countries including India. METHODS: We conducted a prospective observational study in a large tertiary care center of North India, upon ethical clearance. Latex agglutination test was performed to assess serum CrAg levels, followed by the lumbar puncture for detection of CrAg levels in the CSF. We analyzed the prevalence and treatment outcomes of cryptococcal antigenemia among PLHA with CD4 ≤ 100 cells/mm(3). Detailed clinical examination was conducted, with follow-up of upto 3 months. Multivariate analysis was performed for the estimation of risk factors. RESULTS: The mean age (years) and BMI (kg/m(2)) of all the participants were 41.4 ± 11.2 and 22.1 ± 2.6, respectively. Notably, the mean CD4 count (cu.mm) at the time of recruitment was 62.3 ± 20.5. Noteworthy, 62 (60.8%) of the patients were ART naïve. We found 9.8% (n = 10) of the patients were positive for serum CrAg, and only 2.9% (n = 3) had clinical features of meningitis and 6.8% (n = 7) were asymptomatic (subclinical) CrAg positive. Strikingly, 3.9% (n = 4) of the asymptomatic cryptococcal antigenemia patients were also positive for CrAg in CSF, with 1.9% (n = 2) were only serum CrAg positive, and 1 patient was lost to follow-up (Graph 1). Multivariate analysis revealed that patients with long duration of HIV (P = 0.04), headache symptoms (P = 0.004) and possessing features of meningismus (P value=0.08) are more likely to be CrAg positive. Conversely, patients on fluconazole were protective against cryptococcal antigenemia (P = 0.1) as shown in Table 1. Overall mortality observed was 11.3% among advanced HIV patients. Moreover, mortality in CrAg-positive patients was 33.3% in comparison to CrAg-negative patients who had 9% (P = 0.06) in 3-months follow-up. CONCLUSION: Cryptococcal antigenemia is common (9.8%) among patients with CD4 count ≤100/mm(3) in India. Screening for CrAg should be made routine for PLHA with CD4 count ≤100/mm(3) and if required preemptive treatment to be given in this regard. [Image: see text] [Image: see text] DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.