TY - JOUR T1 - Pulmonary cryptococcosis complicating interstitial lung disease in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus JF - BMJ Case Reports JO - BMJ Case Reports DO - 10.1136/bcr-2019-229403 VL - 12 IS - 8 SP - e229403 AU - Rahul Gaiba AU - Edward O’Neill AU - Seetha Lakshmi Y1 - 2019/08/01 UR - http://casereports.bmj.com/content/12/8/e229403.abstract N2 - We report a case of primary pulmonary cryptococcosis in a 59-year-old female patient with a history of systemic lupus erythematosus, interstitial lung disease and glaucoma. She presented with a cough, severe fatigue, unintentional weight loss, shortness of breath (increase in home oxygen use from baseline) and pleuritic chest pain of 2 months duration. During these 2 months, her symptoms had worsened despite multiple hospital visits, empirical antibiotics and empirical increase of her steroid dosage. Cytopathology of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid showed yeast cells with narrow-based budding and grew Cryptococcus neoformans on fungal culture. She was treated with oral fluconazole 400 mg/day for 6 months with an improvement in cough, decrease in shortness of breath (return to baseline oxygen use) and resolution of pleuritic chest pain. ER -