Adrenal histoplasmosis: unusual presentations.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Histoplasmosis has been sporadically reported from India. Though asymptomatic adrenal involvement has been described in patients with disseminated histoplasmosis; isolated adrenal involvement with adrenal insufficiency (AI) as the presenting manifestation of the disease is rare. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We describe 5 immunocompetent men (mean age 55.6 yrs) from a nonendemic area with adrenal histoplasmosis presenting with constitutional symptoms. Three patients had AI at presentation with bilateral adrenal involvement and the other two developed AI during the course of the illness and had unilateral adrenal mass . All the patients had histopathological/cytologically proven adrenal histoplasmosis. 18FDG-PET done in 3 patients helped in delineating the extent of the disease. Adrenalectomy was done in 2 patients who presented with unilateral adrenal mass. All these patients received Amphotericin B and/or itraconazole treatment which led to symptomatic improvement but AI persisted in all at the end of the follow up of 6 to 18 months. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of adrenal histoplasmosis should be considered in patients presenting with constitutional symptoms and unilateral or bilateral adrenal mass/es with or without AI.