Isolated Non-Resolving Vulvar Lesion as a Presentation of Disseminated Histoplasmosis in a Woman with HIV

Authors

• Moni Roy Department of Internal Medicine, University of Illinois College of Medicine, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria, Illinois, USA
• Ashish Kumar Roy Department of Internal Medicine, University of Illinois College of Medicine, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria, Illinois, USA
• Jan Nalinee Upalakalin Department of Pathology, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria, Illinois, USA
• Sharjeel Ahmad Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Peoria, Illinois, USA

mroy27@uic.edu

Keywords

Abstract

Disseminated histoplasmosis is most commonly caused by Histoplasma capsulatum and is a known opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients. The clinical presentation of histoplasmosis varies from asymptomatic to a progressive disseminated form. Pulmonary and CNS involvement is common in disseminated histoplasmosis. Rarely, disseminated disease can present as vulvar lesion in the absence of pulmonary symptoms, causing a delay in diagnosis. As per our PubMed literature search, there have only been two reported cases where vulvar lesion was the only presenting symptom of disseminated disease. In our patient, a histopathological diagnosis was made with staining showing budding yeast forms of histoplasma.