Objective. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of the colloidal gold immunochromatography method in the detection of Cryptococcus antigen in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) for pulmonary cryptococcosis (PC) diagnosis. Methods. A total of 111 patients with clinically suspected PC who were finally diagnosed with nonhuman immunodeficiency virus infection and hospitalized in the Ningbo First Hospital from March 2017 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. All the confirmed cases were divided into two groups as follows: the PC group (33 cases) and the non-PC group (78 cases). All the patients were subjected to serum and BALF cryptococcal capsular polysaccharide antigen-lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (CrAg-LFA) and etiological culturing. Results. In the PC group, serum CrAg-LFA was positive for 24 and negative for 9 cases, serum Cryptococcus culture was positive for 1 and negative for 32 cases, BALF CrAg-LFA was positive for 31 and negative for 2 cases, and BALF Cryptococcus culture was positive for 9 and negative for 24 cases. In the non-PC group, serum CrAg-LFA was positive for 1 and negative for 77 cases, serum culture was negative in all the cases, and both BALF CrAg-LFA and culture were negative in all the cases. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of BALF CrAg-LFA for PC diagnosis were 93.9%, 100%, and 98.2%, respectively, whereas those of BALF culture were 27.3%, 100%, and 78.4%, respectively. The sensitivity and accuracy of BALF CrAg-LFA were higher than that of serum CrAg-LFA and BALF etiological culture with statistically significant differences ( ). Conclusion. The diagnostic value of BALF CrAg-LFA for PC is superior to that of serum CrAg-LFA and BALF etiological culture.

Although alectinib is a well-tolerated and highly effective inhibitor of a second-generation anaplastic lymphoma kinase, special attention should be paid to the possibility of potentially severe and fatal adverse events such as interstitial pneumonia. We report a case of a patient with advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with alectinib who developed immunohistochemically positive anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK(IHC +)) . However, due to the rapid emergence of drug-induced interstitial lung disease, alectinib treatment was halted. Once the interstitial lung disease had been successfully treated, we reluctantly chose crizotinib as a second-line treatment for ALK + NSCLC in this patient as he refused all other available treatments. Contrary to expectation, crizotinib performed well both in terms of its safety and efficacy. Our results suggest that crizotinib may provide a promising therapy option for patients with ALK + NSCLC accompanied by alectinib-induced interstitial lung disease. To our knowledge, this is a rare report of successful treatment of ALK + NSCLC with crizotinib after alectinib-induced interstitial lung disease.

Introduction: This study aimed to explore the efficacy of abrupt and gradual smoking cessation with pre-cessation varenicline therapy. Methods: A total of 278 smokers who experienced moderate-to-severe nicotine dependence and visited a Chinese smoking cessation outpatient clinic from March...