de Oliveira Ana, Unnasch Thomas R, Crothers Kristina, Eiser Shary, Zucchi Patrizia, Moir Jonathan, Beard Charles B, Lawrence Gena G, Huang Laurence
Division of Geographic Medicine, BBRB Box 7, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2007 Feb;57(2):169-76. doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2006.08.015. Epub 2006 Oct 17.
Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), caused by infection with Pneumocystis jirovecii, remains an important opportunistic infection in humans. A reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay has been shown to specifically detect viable P. jirovecii organisms. In the current study, we evaluated this assay on different types of respiratory samples. The assay had a diagnostic sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 86% when applied to bronchoalveolar lavage samples. The assay's performance declined when applied to less invasive induced sputum and oropharyngeal wash (OPW) samples. The sensitivity, when applied to OPWs, was improved by examining multiple sequential OPW samples and was affected by clinical sampling parameters that could increase or decrease the number of potential organisms in the oropharynx. When used in conjunction with an optimized clinical sampling protocol, this assay may become a useful tool for detecting and monitoring P. jirovecii in minimally invasive clinical samples.
由耶氏肺孢子菌感染引起的肺孢子菌肺炎（PCP）仍是人类重要的机会性感染。逆转录酶聚合酶链反应检测已被证明能特异性检测存活的耶氏肺孢子菌。在本研究中，我们在不同类型的呼吸道样本上评估了该检测方法。当应用于支气管肺泡灌洗样本时，该检测方法的诊断敏感性为100%，特异性为86%。当应用于侵入性较小的诱导痰和口咽冲洗液（OPW）样本时，该检测方法的性能有所下降。当应用于OPW样本时，通过检查多个连续的OPW样本可提高敏感性，且受临床采样参数的影响，这些参数可能增加或减少口咽中潜在病原体的数量。当与优化的临床采样方案结合使用时，该检测方法可能成为在微创临床样本中检测和监测耶氏肺孢子菌的有用工具。
