Pathology of Opportunistic Infections in Tropics

by RK Gupta

Over past few decades, certain therapeutic advances such as organ transplantation, prolonged use of steroids and other immunosuppressants for various diseases and chemo-radiotherapy for treatment of malignancy, while prolonging patient survival, have also contributed to the causation of significant aberrations in host defense mechanisms in these patients. Further, due to compromised host resistance, certain clinical conditions such as HIV/AIDS, diabetes mellitus, major organ compromises like chronic renal failure, chronic liver and chronic lung diseases etc., make these patients potentially vulnerable to a variety of opportunistic infections. The challenges posed by the opportunistic pathogens are enormous. Early clinical suspicion, prompt morphological identification and timely management are essential so as to prevent high morbidity and mortality associated with these infections. These pathogens are often not identified because of unawareness of their morphological appearances on histopathology and/or cytological evaluation. This publication is entirely devoted to the morphological identification of opportunistic pathogens in a variety of tissues and organs subjected to histopathological and cytological evaluation in diverse clinical settings. The atlas includes more than 250 representative high quality color microphotographs along with relevant clinical workup of each case. The atlas has clearly organized layout with separate chapters dealing with opportunistic bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infections along with a note on multiple opportunistic infections encountered in immunocompromised patients. Adequate references have also been provided in each chapter. An appendix on the techniques and interpretation of commonly performed histochemical stains useful in the identification of these infections has also been incorporated.

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