Objective To explore the effects of implementing cryptococcal capsular antigen (CrAg) detection on the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary cryptococcosis (PC). Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 141 patients (all blood HIV antibodies-negative) with PC diagnosed in the outpatient and inpatient settings of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of the People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2021. The outpatient diagnosis of PC before and after implementing the CrAg detection (which was carried out in June 2018) and the proportion of PC patients diagnosed in the inpatient setting in the discharged patients in the same period were compared, while changes in the pathogenic diagnosis of PC in inpatients before and after implementing the CrAg detection were observed. Results Before implementing the CrAg detection, there was no PC patient diagnosed in the outpatient setting; after implementing the CrAg detection, 39 PC patients were diagnosed in the outpatient setting. After implementing the CrAg detection, the proportion of PC patients diagnosed in the inpatient setting in the discharged patients in the same period increased [11.3‰ (74/6,522) vs. 3.8‰ (28/7,449), P<0.05], and the proportion of PC patients diagnosed by percutaneous lung biopsy was lower compared with that before implementing the detection [43.2% (32/74) vs. 75.0% (21/28), P<0.05]. Conclusion The implementation of CrAg detection enables some PC patients to be diagnosed and treated in the outpatient setting and improves the PC diagnosis rate of inpatients, which helps to reduce invasive operations.

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