INTRODUCTION Pulmonary disease is common in HIV-infected patients. Diagnostic means, however, are often scarce in areas where most HIV patients are living. Chest ultrasonography has recently evolved as a highly sensitive and specific imaging tool for diagnosing chest conditions such as pneumothorax, pneumonia and pulmonary edema in critically ill patients. This article addresses the issue of im...

Pneumocystis jirovecii previously known Pneumocystis carinii is the cause of opportunistic infections in the lower respiratory tract of immunocompromised hosts mainly among patients with HIV infected, hematologic malignancies, congenital immunodeficiency, organ transplant recipients, and patients receiving immunosuppressive drugs [1]. The organism was considered as one of the most leading cause...

Evidence Summary A Cochrane meta-analysis of six RCTs (n = 489) found that corticosteroids given as early adjunctive anti–pneumocystis pneumonia therapy in patients with HIV infection decrease mortality at one month (risk ratio [RR] = 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.32 to 0.98) and at three to four months (RR = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.5 to 0.94).1 Of the 489 patients, 463 had confirmed pneumocyst...

Pneumocystis is an unusual fungus that is a prototypical opportunistic pathogen, causing an asymptomatic or mild infection in the normal host but fulminate pneumonia (PcP) in the immunocompromised host. Untreated, the mortality rate from PcP approaches 100%. Even with treatment, mortality rates approach 10–20%. It is a ubiquitous organism infecting a wide array of mammalian species. Although th...

Moderate to marked interstitial pneumonitis with many Pneumocystis organisms was found in rabbits treated with cortisone and antibiotics and instilled intranasally with a suspension of lung tissue from either a patient or a rabbit with this infection. Organisms and pulmonary lesions of similar severity and frequency were present in controls treated in the same manner but instilled with either s...

We report a case of endobronchial Pneumocystis carinii infection in a patient who most likely had the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Although many unusual manifestations of Pneumocystis pneumonia have been reported in patients with AIDS, this is the first case of P carinii presenting as an endobronchial mass.

We describe an outbreak of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in a pediatric renal transplant unit, likely attributable to patient-to-patient transmission. Single-strand conformation polymorphism molecular typing showed that 3 affected patients had acquired the same 2 strains of Pneumocystis, which suggests interhuman infection. An infant with mitochondriopathy was the probable index patient.

The entity of interstitial plasma cell pneumonia due to Pneumocystis carinii has received increasing attention during the past 10 years. Extensive studies and reviews concerning this problem, its epidemiology and pathogenesis (Ahvenainen, 1957; Bachmann, 1954; Cahalane, 1962; Jirovec, 1 960a and b; Muller and Vietor, 1957), its clinical course and picture (Berdnikoff, 1959; Dvorak and Jirovec, ...

A study is carried out in 8 infants with a diagnosis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia which was established through the study of histologic lung sections, and a microscopic study of protozoas. The following are some of the factors predisposing to this disease: prematurity, significant denutrition, primary immunodeficiencies, extended use of antibiotics, malignancies, and immunosuppressive trea...