Fiberoptic bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage and protected specimen brush technique has become an established method for etiologic diagnosis in severe forms of pulmonary infections during recent years. In this study, including 62 bronchoscopies in 53 patients, a standardized program, covering all important pulmonary pathogens, has been evaluated in a heterogeneous group of patients. Resu...

A2. This is a very interesting question. In antimicrobial research, the ability of an antibiotic to produce a three-log kill (decrease the bacterial load by three logs) is an important characteristic. In theory, if an antibiotic is able to produce a threelog kill, the host’s immune system can usually kill the remaining bacterial population. However, with an immunocompromised host, such as an HI...

BACKGROUND Encephalitozoon cuniculi infects a wide range of homoeothermic animals, including man. Complications due to this microsporidian have been reported only in immunocompromised patients. Reports on E. cuniculi in immunocompetent humans are lacking, most probably, because it is not linked to any clinical manifestations in such hosts. The present work was carried out with the aim of studyi...

Cryptococcus neoformans (C. neoformans var. grubii and C. neoformans var. neoformans) and C. gattii are responsible for most cases of cryptococcal meningitis worldwide [1]. The disease of cryptococcal meningitis has been well documented in patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and it may also occur in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative patients even with apparently n...

Immunocompromised patients may develop severe chronic anaemia when infected by human parvovirus B19 (B19V). However, this is not the case in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with good adherence to highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART). In this study, we investigated the clinical evolution of five HIV-infected patients receiving HAART who had B19V infections confirme...

BACKGROUND Although P. jiroveci pneumonia affects immunocompromised (IC) patients of any etiology, clinical features and prognostic outcomes are different depending if they are patients with HIV infection or other causes of IC. OBJECTIVES To compare clinical and laboratory features as well as outcomes of P. jiroveci pneumonia in HIV versus non-HIV patients. METHODS Retrospective review of c...

Parasites are incredibly diverse, astonishingly successful as well; hence, extremely prevalent in immunocompromised individuals. This is more so with opportunistic parasites which are normally innocuous but, gain strong foothold in a setting of immunosuppression. In recent years, proportion of immunocompromised patients such as organ transplant recipients and those having HIV/AIDS, diabetes, ma...

As a result of the efficacy of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can survive longer and are thus naturally prone to ageing-related degenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Managing PD and HIV in the same patient may be challenging, as HAART and levodopa interact and may cause intolerable side effects. Concerns about th...

Mycobacterium simiae is a non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) endemic to the southwestern United States, the Middle East and Cuba, and has been isolated from tap water, including municipal water [1]. Although NTM form an integral part of the environment, they have potential to cause clinical disease in immunocompromised hosts [2–4]. M. simiae most commonly causes pulmonary disease, however, bon...