Article

Distribution of Pneumocystis jirovecii in lungs from colonized COPD patients.

Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease (impact factor: 2.45). 09/2011; 71(1):24-8. DOI:10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2011.05.008 pp.24-8
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Pneumocystis jirovecii has been detected in lung tissue from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and is associated with disease severity. The regional distribution of the organism in lungs is unknown, but differences in distribution of Pneumocystis could affect estimates of colonization prevalence. We examined the distribution of Pneumocystis in the lungs of 19 non-HIV-infected patients with COPD who were undergoing lung transplantation. DNA was extracted from explanted lungs. We found Pneumocystis colonization in lung tissue of 42.1% of patients with advanced COPD; however, there was significant regional variation in colonization between lung segments of individual patients. Colonization was detected more commonly in the lower and middle lobes than in the upper lobes. These findings suggest that single samples from an individual may underestimate the prevalence of Pneumocystis colonization and future studies may obtain a higher yield of Pneumocystis colonization detection when sampling the lower lobes.

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Keywords

19 non-HIV-infected patients
 
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
 
colonization prevalence
 
disease severity
 
estimates
 
explanted lungs
 
future studies
 
higher yield
 
individual patients
 
lower
 
lower lobes
 
lung segments
 
lung tissue
 
lungs
 
middle lobes
 
Pneumocystis colonization
 
Pneumocystis colonization detection
 
Pneumocystis jirovecii
 
regional distribution
 
upper lobes