Abstract

TKACH, Agustina Daniela; MORENO, Jorge Daniel  and  BAVA, Amadeo Javier. Presumptive diagnosis of histoplasmosis in a blood smear. Acta bioquím. clín. latinoam. [online]. 2012, vol.46, n.4. ISSN 0325-2957.

A case of AIDS-associated histoplasmosis diagnosed by microscopy from a blood smear performed during a hematologic study was reported. The smear, fixed with methanol and stained with 10% Giemsa solution, revealed with a 100X objective, 2-4 µ-diameter yeast - like structures within the leuMicrobiología contakocytes, showing a typical staining in cap and a peripheral clear halo, characteristic of Histoplasma capsulatum. To confirm the mycological finding, the same smear was stained with the Grocott technique, showing brownish yeasts in the leucocytes. The patient, clinically deteriorated and with advanced immunological disorder (<50 T CD4+ lymphocytes/µL), died the next day after the diagnosis was made, in spite of the established treatments. This finding highlights the need to have operators trained in the recognition of microbiological structures of diagnostic importance in hematological smears in a Reference Center of Infectious Diseases, and even in the General Laboratory. The immediate diagnosis of this and other serious infections, as Malaria, enables the etiologic treatment and increases the possibilities of therapeutic success.

Keywords : Aids associated histoplasmosis; Blood smear; Giemsa; Erythroblasts.

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