The frequency of pneumocystis pneumonia due to Pneumocystis jirovecii in patients with chronic pulmonary disorder in Ahvaz

Introduction: Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) is a chronic fungal infection that caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii. Disease is more prevalent among the HIV-infected patients. The colonization of pneumocystis in human respiratory system is associated with the airway inflammation and obstruction. Aims: The current study was conducted to identify the prevalence of P. jirovecii in the patients with chronic pulmonary disorders in Ahvaz, Iran. Materials and Methods: In the present study 115 bronchoalveolar lavage specimens (BAL) were collected from patients with chronic pulmonary disorders. Direct microscopy slides were stained using Gomori's methenamine silver (GMS). In addition, samples were subjected for the DNA extraction and Nested-PCR with specific primers. The second PCR product were subjected for sequencing. Results: Our findings were demonstrated that 31(27%) of samples were positive for P. jirovecii. Nine patients (29%) have pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) followed by, 1(3.2%) HIV positive and 21(67.7%) other pulmonary disorders. In this study P. jirovecii was detected in direct smears in 2 cases (1.7%) using GMS. Our results show that there no significant differences between sex, TB, HIV and P. jirovecii in BAL. Conclusions: Our findings show that there are a high prevalence of P. jirovecii in patients with chronic pulmonary disorders in Ahvaz. This rate is higher than the previous reports rate in Iran. In addition, our investigation revealed that the presence of P. jirovecii in the patients with chronic pulmonary disorders could be considered an important risk for PCP infection.