Active clinical trials for "Meningitis, Cryptococcal"

To evaluate the effect of corticosteroids on reducing elevated intracranial pressure in cryptococcal meningitis. To evaluate the safety of corticosteroids in patients with cryptococcal meningitis and intracranial hypertension. In AIDS patients with cryptococcal meningitis, a correlation has been found between early death and elevated intracranial pressure. Since dexamethasone has been found to reduce intracranial pressure resulting from other forms of meningitis, it may be of benefit in AIDS patients with cryptococcal meningitis.

Cryptococcal Meningitis continues to be one of the most devastating AIDS defining illness in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the availability of azoles such as fluconazole for treatment, mortality remains high with some studies showing 100% mortality. The investigators designed a study to determine if timing of the initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in patients with cryptococcal meningitis and HIV would improve survival. The investigators hypothesis was that early initiation of ART result in improved mortality for patients with HIV and cryptococcal meningitis.

The purpose of this study is to examine the antifungal activity of recombinant interferon-gamma 1b (rIFN-gamma 1b) given with standard antifungal therapy.

The impact of neurological disorders is enormous worldwide, and it is increased in poor settings, due to lack of diagnosis and treatment facilities as well as delayed management. In sub-Saharan Africa, the few observational studies conducted for the past 20 years show that neurological disorders accounted for 7 to 24% of all admissions. Central nervous system (CNS) infections were suspected in one third of all patients admitted with neurological symptoms, with a specific microbial aetiology identified in half of these. Most CNS infections may be considered as "severe and treatable diseases", e.g. human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), cerebral malaria, bacterial meningitis, CNS tuberculosis etc. If left untreated, death or serious sequels occur (mortality rates were as high as 30% in the above mentioned studies), but the outcome may be favourable with timely and appropriate management. In poor settings, such conditions should be targeted in priority in the clinical decision-making process. Unfortunately, most neuro-infections present with non-specific symptoms in their early stages, leading to important diagnostic delays. Moreover, they require advanced diagnostic technology, which is not available in most tropical rural settings: here, you have to rely on clinical judgment and first-line laboratory results, whose confirming or excluding powers are limited or unknown. Several rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) have been recently developed for conditions like malaria or HIV, but their diagnostic contribution has not been evaluated within a multi-disease approach. Thus, this research aims at improving the early diagnosis of severe and treatable neglected and non-neglected infectious diseases which present with neurological symptoms in the province of Bandundu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), by combining classic clinical predictors with a panel of simple point-of-care rapid diagnostic tests. The evaluation of existing algorithms and elaboration/validation of new guidelines will be described in a subsequent protocol.

The DREAMM project is investigating whether the DREAMM interventions (1) Health system strengthening, 2) Co-designed education programs tailored to frontline healthcare workers, 3) Implementation of a diagnostic and treatment algorithm and, 4) Communities of practice in infectious diseases and laboratory capacity building) when combined reduce two week all-cause mortality of HIV-associated meningo-encephalitis in African LMICs.

Three induction treatment strategies [ voriconazole +5FC vs. amphotericin deoxycholate (0.4-0.5 mg/kg/d)+5FC vs. amphotericin deoxycholate (0.7-1.0 mg/kg/d)+5FC ] for HIV-infected patients with cryptococcal meningitis were compared.

The main purpose of this study is to observe the clinical effect of intrathecal administration of liposomal amphotericin B in Cryptococcal Meningitis without Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of liposomal amphotericin B and amphotericin B deoxycholate with or without flucytosine followed by fluconazole for the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis.

The aim of the trial is to demonstrate that in a sub-Saharan African setting, the association of: Oral treatment : high dose of fluconazole (1600mg/d) associated with flucytosine (100 mg/kg/j) as induction therapy lumbar punctures to control intracranial pressure can decrease mortality rate below 35% at 10 weeks. This is a non-randomized open label pilot study, with standardized management of cryptococcoses meningitis and follow-up in Burundi and Ivory Coast. A total of 41 patients will be enrolled.

Cryptococcal meningitis (CM) is one of the leading opportunistic infections and one of the most common causes of death in AIDS patients. Amphotericin B (AmB) is the corner stone in CM treatment. The effect of AmB was dose-dependent. Recent retrospective study indicated that longer duration rather than higher dose of AmB is necessary to reduce the mortality of CM. We aimed to explore the efficacy and safety of small dose but longer duration of AmB for the treatment of HIV-associated CM.