Case report: Chronic Candida albicans meningitis: a rare entity diagnosed by metagenomic next-generation sequencing

Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2024 Apr 19:14:1322847. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1322847. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

The aetiology of chronic aseptic meningitis is difficult to establish. Candida meningitis in particular is often diagnosed late, as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) work-up and imaging findings are nonspecific. A 35-year-old patient with chronic aseptic meningitis, for which repeated microbiological testing of CSF was unrevealing, was finally diagnosed with Candida albicans (C. albicans) meningitis with cauda equina involvement using metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS). This report highlights the diagnostic challenges and the difficulties of treating shunt-associated fungal meningitis.

Keywords: (1,3)-beta-D-glucan; Candida albicans; cerebrospinal fluid; chronic meningitis; metagenomic next-generation sequencing; ventriculitis.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Antifungal Agents / therapeutic use
  • Candida albicans* / genetics
  • Candida albicans* / isolation & purification
  • Candidiasis / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Candidiasis / diagnosis
  • Candidiasis / microbiology
  • Chronic Disease
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Meningitis, Aseptic / diagnosis
  • Meningitis, Fungal* / diagnosis
  • Meningitis, Fungal* / drug therapy
  • Meningitis, Fungal* / microbiology
  • Metagenomics* / methods

Substances

  • Antifungal Agents

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.