TY - JOUR T1 - Usefulness of PCR for diagnosis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in different patient groups. AU - Weig,M, AU - Klinker,H, AU - Bögner,B H, AU - Meier,A, AU - Gross,U, PY - 1997/6/1/pubmed PY - 1997/6/1/medline PY - 1997/6/1/entrez SP - 1445 EP - 9 JF - Journal of clinical microbiology JO - J Clin Microbiol VL - 35 IS - 6 N2 - Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) is one of the most predominant opportunistic infectious diseases in patients with AIDS. Nested PCR has been described as a sensitive and specific tool for detecting P. carinii DNA in clinical specimens. Little is known about the correlation of positive PCR results and clinical evidence of PCP in patients with different forms of immunosuppression. One hundred and thirty-six sputum samples, 26 tracheal-bronchial aspirate samples, 35 bronchoalveolar lavage samples, and 11 lung biopsy samples from (i) human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with AIDS, (ii) immunocompromised patients with leukemia or lymphoma, and (iii) immunocompetent control patients were investigated by a nested PCR amplifying DNA from the mitochondrial large subunit of P. carinii. All patients suffered from acute episodes of respiratory disease. The resulting data were correlated with clinical evidence of PCP. A high degree of association of positive P. carinii PCR results and clinical evidence of PCP in HIV-infected patients with AIDS was found. When calculated for bronchoalveolar lavage and lung biopsy samples, the positive and the negative predictive values of P. carinii PCR for PCP diagnosis in HIV-infected patients with AIDS were 1 and the specificity and the sensitivity were 100%. In contrast, in the group of patients with leukemia or lymphoma, the positive predictive value of the nested PCR for these materials was found to be as low as 0.09, the negative predictive value was 0.73, the specificity was 44.4%, and the sensitivity was 25.0%. No P. carinii DNA could be detected in specimens from immunocompetent patients. In summary, in contrast to patients with leukemia and lymphoma, nested PCR seems to be a sensitive and specific tool for PCP diagnosis in HIV-infected patients with AIDS. SN - 0095-1137 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/9163459/Usefulness_of_PCR_for_diagnosis_of_Pneumocystis_carinii_pneumonia_in_different_patient_groups_ L2 - https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jcm.35.6.1445-1449.1997?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub=pubmed DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -