Analysis of clinical and pathological characteristics of 3 cases of AIDS complicated with talaromycosis marneffei of upper digestive tract
RONG Zhili
MA Bingfeng
SHI Tingting
LI Zongxian
LOU Songwen
Abstract：Objective To investigate the clinical and pathological characteristics of AIDS complicated with talaromycosis marneffei of upper digestive tract.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 3 cases of AIDS patients with upper gastrointestinal talaromycosis marneffei infection.The clinical and pathological characteristics,treatment and outcome were summarized.Results All 3 patients all were male with CD4+T lymphocytes counts less than 50 cell/μL.All patients had gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain,abdominal distension,diarrhea and fecal occult blood.One case had hematemesis.All patients had rash and weight loss.Laboratory tests showed an elevated percentage of neutrophils,anemia and hypoalbuminemia of varying degrees,and positive cultures of Talaromyces marneffei from different samples.Superficial and deep abdominal lymph nodes as well as hepatosplenomegaly.Microendoscopy revealed mucosal erosion or ulceration.One case of ulcer showed a chisel like appearance,resembling the changes after cytomegalovirus infection.One case had pyloric stenosis.Pathological features include chronic mucosal inflammation of with erosion or ulceration,proliferation and aggregation of a large number of foamy histiocytes,and pale gray yeast-like fungi visible both intracellularly and extracellularly.Special stains reveal the fungi as round or oval-shaped,some sausage-shaped,with visible central septa.All 3 patients were treated with antifungal therapy.One patient requested discharge after 1 week of treatment and was lost to follow-up,and the other 2 patients showed improvement after completing the full course of standardized treatment,and remained in stable condition during long-term outpatient follow-up.Conclusion There are few individual reports on AIDS complicated by upper gastrointestinal talaromycosis marneffei and the clinical symptoms are non-specific.When the CD4+T lymphocytes are obviously decreased,patients have a history of living in endemic areas,fever,rash,weight loss,and hepatosplenomegaly,etiological or histopathological examination should be promptly performed for timely diagnosis and treatment.
Keywords：acquired immunodeficiency syndrometalaromycosis marneffeiupper digestive tractclinical manifestationspathological features
Publication Date：2026-02-28
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-16(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 19-23 )