Table 1.
Summary of clinical aspects of the patients and results obtained with four different non-culture-based methods for the diagnosis of sporotrichosis using cerebrospinal fluid samples.
| Patient Sample (CSF) | Diagnosis and Comorbidity/Immunosuppression | Routine Findings | Nested PCR | qPCR | ELISA | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IgG | IgM | ||||||
| a Case group | 1a | Disseminated sporotrichosis/HIV/AIDS/Past of seizures (childhood) | Pleocytosis, low glucose and high protein | + | + | + | + |
| 1b | Pleocytosis and low glucose | + | + | + | + | ||
| 1c | Normal | + | + | + | + | ||
| 2a | Disseminated sporotrichosis/HIV/AIDS/Depression | Pleocytosis, low glucose, high protein and Sporothrix sp. in culture | − | + | + | + | |
| 2b | Pleocytosis, low glucose, high protein and Sporothrix sp. in culture | + | + | + | + | ||
| 3a | Disseminated sporotrichosis/HIV/AIDS/Previous pulmonary TB | Pleocytosis, low glucose and high protein | + | − | + | + | |
| 3b | Pleocytosis and high protein | + | − | + | + | ||
| 3c | Pleocytosis, low glucose and high protein | + | + | + | + | ||
| 4a | Disseminated sporotrichosis/HIV/AIDS/Previous syphilis | Pleocytosis, low glucose and high protein | + | + | + | + | |
| 4b | Pleocytosis, low glucose and high protein | + | + | + | + | ||
| 4c | Pleocytosis, low glucose and high protein | + | − | + | + | ||
| 5 | Disseminated sporotrichosis/HIV/AIDS/Disseminated TB/Alcohol abuse | Sporothrix sp. in culture | + | + | − | − | |
| 6a | Disseminated sporotrichosis/HIV/AIDS/Asthma | Pleocytosis and high protein | + | + | + | + | |
| 6b | High protein | + | + | + | + | ||
| Control group | 7 | Previous disseminated sporotrichosis/Meningeal TB/HIV/AIDS | High protein/ Mycobacterium tuberculosis |
− | − | − | − |
| 8 | Spinal syndrome/HIV/AIDS/Pulmonary TB/Syphilis/Disseminated histoplasmosis | Pleocytosis, EBV | − | − | − | − | |
| 9 | Posterior uveitis, optic disc edema | Normal | + | + | − | − | |
| 10 | Investigation of headaches | Normal | − | − | − | − | |
| 11 | Paracoccidioidomycosis/HIV/AIDS | Normal | − | − | − | − | |
| 12 | Disseminated histoplasmosis/Facial herpes zoster/HIV/AIDS | High protein/VZV | − | − | − | − | |
| 13 | Pansinusitis/HIV/AIDS | Normal | − | − | − | − | |
| 14 | PML/Disseminated TB/HIV/AIDS | HSV-2, CMV | − | − | − | − | |
| 15 | Neuroparacoccidioidomycosis | Normal | − | − | − | − | |
| 16 | COVID-19 and Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia/HIV/AIDS | Normal | + | − | − | − | |
| 17 | PML/HIV/AIDS | Normal | + | − | − | − | |
| 18 | Cryptococcal meningitis/Disseminated histoplasmosis/HIV/AIDS | Cryptococcal antigen positive |
− | − | − | − | |
| a Test group | 19 | Disseminated sporotrichosis/DM | Normal | − | − | + | − |
| 20 | Disseminated sporotrichosis/HIV/AIDS | Normal | + | − | − | − | |
| 21 | Disseminated sporotrichosis/Latent syphilis/Pulmonary TB/HIV/AIDS | Normal | + | + | + | − | |
| 22 | Disseminated sporotrichosis/Facial palsy and neuromotor impairment since birthday/HIV/AIDS | High protein | + | − | − | + | |
CSF: cerebrospinal fluid. HIV/AIDS: Infection by the human immunodeficiency virus with or without acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. COVID-19: Coronavirus disease 2019. PCR: polymerase chain reaction. qPCR: quantitative PCR. ELISA: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. NA: not available. DM: Diabetes mellitus. PML: Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. HSV: Herpes simplex virus. CMV: cytomegalovirus. VZV: varicella-zoster virus. TB: tuberculosis. EBV: Epstein-Barr virus. +: positive or reactive results. −: negative or non-reactive results. a—Detailed characteristics of the six patients from the case group were previously published by Lima et al. [7], as patients 1–2 and 13–16; patients from samples 20–22 of the test group were part of the Group 2 of the article by Lima et al. [7].