Abstract
Background: Pneumocystis jirovecii (P. jirovecii) colonization has been postulated to cause lung function deterioration in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and its prevalence is unknown in this group of patients in Colombia.
Objective: to document the prevalence of colonization in patients over 40 years old with COPD diagnosis, excluding those requiring immunosuppressive threatment or infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
Method: cross-sectional study in non-probabilistic sampling for convenience with continuous patient selection. Real time PCR (qPCR) of P. jirovecii in induced sputum sample with LighMix Kit (Roche) by the amplification of 244 base pairs fragment from the major surface glycoprotein gene of the fungus.
Results: we have found a prevalence of 15.4% of the 52 analyzed patients. All of those were 65 years older, with high symptomatology indexes according to modified Medical Research Council scale (mMRC) and COPD Evaluation Test (CAT), the majority of colonized patients were GOLD D (62.5%), rated by the Global Initiative for COPD.
Conclusions: this is, to our knowledge, the first study of its kind to include Colombian population. P. jirovecii colonization prevalence as detected by qPCR in sputum samples was 15,4% and it is similar to prevalence reported in other populations. Further studies are needed in order to assess the impact of this colonization in COPD progression (i.e. number of exacerbations and pulmonary function decline), and this may lead to the proposal of novel interventions to eradicate the microorganism in these patients.
Objective: to document the prevalence of colonization in patients over 40 years old with COPD diagnosis, excluding those requiring immunosuppressive threatment or infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
Method: cross-sectional study in non-probabilistic sampling for convenience with continuous patient selection. Real time PCR (qPCR) of P. jirovecii in induced sputum sample with LighMix Kit (Roche) by the amplification of 244 base pairs fragment from the major surface glycoprotein gene of the fungus.
Results: we have found a prevalence of 15.4% of the 52 analyzed patients. All of those were 65 years older, with high symptomatology indexes according to modified Medical Research Council scale (mMRC) and COPD Evaluation Test (CAT), the majority of colonized patients were GOLD D (62.5%), rated by the Global Initiative for COPD.
Conclusions: this is, to our knowledge, the first study of its kind to include Colombian population. P. jirovecii colonization prevalence as detected by qPCR in sputum samples was 15,4% and it is similar to prevalence reported in other populations. Further studies are needed in order to assess the impact of this colonization in COPD progression (i.e. number of exacerbations and pulmonary function decline), and this may lead to the proposal of novel interventions to eradicate the microorganism in these patients.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Edition | 61 |
| Volume | 50 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2017 |
