Diagnosing and Treating Histoplasmosis (2024)

FAQs

How do you diagnose histoplasmosis? ›

Antibody tests are useful for diagnosis and management of histoplasmosis but not in all cases. The two standard assays are complement fixation and immunodiffusion assay. Complement-fixing antibodies may appear three to six weeks (sometimes as early as two weeks) following infection by H.

Yes, antifungal medications can often cure histoplasmosis in people with a healthy immune system. Your provider may treat you with these medications: Itraconazole. Amphotericin B (AmB).

Histoplasmosis is traditionally and directly diagnosed by histopathology using specific stains, as well as by isolation of the fungus in culture, which is considered the gold standard [1].

In most cases, histoplasmosis causes mild flu-like symptoms that appear between 3 and 17 days after exposure to the fungus. These symptoms include fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, fatigue, cough and chest discomfort. In these milder forms, most symptoms go away on their own in a few weeks or within a month.

Severe histoplasmosis can develop into a long-term lung infection. It can also spread from the lungs to other parts of the body, such as the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). This is known as disseminated histoplasmosis.

In otherwise healthy people, this infection usually goes away without treatment. If you are sick for more than 1 month or are having trouble breathing, your provider may prescribe medicine. The main treatment for histoplasmosis is antifungal drugs.

You're likely to start by seeing your primary care provider, who might refer you to a specialist in infectious diseases. Depending on your symptoms and the severity of your infection, you might also see other doctors, such as a lung specialist (pulmonologist) or a heart specialist (cardiologist).

How Histoplasmosis Is Treated. Most cases of histoplasmosis go away on their own in a few weeks without treatment. However, for severe, chronic or disseminated histoplasmosis, antifungal medication is recommended.

Anyone can get histoplasmosis. It is recognized more often in immunocompromised individuals, such as in people with HIV or AIDS. Birds (especially chickens), bats, dogs, cats, rats, skunks, opossum, foxes and other animals can get histoplasmosis and may play a role in spreading the disease.

The MVista® histoplasma quantitative antigen test aids the diagnosis of histoplasmosis. Monitoring the histoplasmosis helps determine when treatment can be stopped and to diagnose relapse.

What is the hallmark of histoplasmosis? ›

Pulmonary manifestations are the hallmark of histoplasmosis. Clinical syndromes range from asymptomatic infection to diffuse alveolar disease causing respiratory difficulty and even death.

Enzyme immunoassay (EIA or ELISA) antigen testing is typically considered first because of a quicker turnaround and higher sensitivity; however, it has a high rate of cross-reactivity with Blastomyces.

In this case, the corticosteroids and azathioprine appear to have been the main risk factor for reactivation; however, it has been shown that although these drugs increase the odds of developing an opportunistic infection in inflammatory bowel disease patients (by a factor of 15), histoplasmosis is a rare infection to ...

Some people with histoplasmosis also get joint pain and a rash. People who have a lung disease, such as emphysema, can develop chronic histoplasmosis. Signs of chronic histoplasmosis can include weight loss and a bloody cough. Chronic histoplasmosis symptoms sometimes mimic those of tuberculosis.

If symptoms develop, onset occurs 3-14 days after exposure. Acute is defined as less than 1 month of symptoms, whereas subacute refers to more than 1 month of symptoms but less than 3 months. Fever, headache, malaise, myalgia, abdominal pain, and chills are common symptoms; usually, histoplasmosis is self-limited.

This test is often used to make a rapid diagnosis of the disease in patients who are very ill. A chest X-ray (CXR) may show that you have an infection, but histoplasmosis can look like many other conditions such as pneumonia, lung cancer or tuberculosis.