Gastric cryptosporidiosis complicating HIV infection: case report and review of the literature.

Abstract

Gastric cryptosporidiosis is rarely reported despite the fact that Cryptosporidium has been recognized with increasing frequency as an aetiological agent of severe chronic diarrhoeal enteritis in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. We report a case of gastric cryptosporidiosis that occurred in an AIDS patient. Fifteen previously reported cases of gastric cryptosporidiosis are also reviewed. The review of all cases reported in the literature, including our own, showed that 12 patients had digestive symptoms. In 14 out of 16 patients the diagnosis was achieved by biopsy of the gastric mucosa rather than by examination of the stools. Gastric localization of Cryptosporidium is a rare and severe manifestation of intestinal cryptosporidiosis in patients with AIDS, and no single drug regimen has yet been found to be effective in eradicating this organism.