1. ECIL guidelines for the diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in patients with haematological malignancies and stem cell transplant recipients.
- Author
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Alanio A, Hauser PM, Lagrou K, Melchers WJ, Helweg-Larsen J, Matos O, Cesaro S, Maschmeyer G, Einsele H, Donnelly JP, Cordonnier C, Maertens J, and Bretagne S
- Subjects
- Hematologic Neoplasms therapy, Humans, Diagnostic Tests, Routine methods, Hematologic Neoplasms complications, Immunocompromised Host, Pneumocystis carinii isolation & purification, Pneumonia, Pneumocystis diagnosis, Stem Cell Transplantation adverse effects, Transplant Recipients
- Abstract
The Fifth European Conference on Infections in Leukaemia (ECIL-5) convened a meeting to establish evidence-based recommendations for using tests to diagnose Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) in adult patients with haematological malignancies. Immunofluorescence assays are recommended as the most sensitive microscopic method (recommendation A-II: ). Real-time PCR is recommended for the routine diagnosis of PCP ( A-II: ). Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid is recommended as the best specimen as it yields good negative predictive value ( A-II: ). Non-invasive specimens can be suitable alternatives ( B-II: ), acknowledging that PCP cannot be ruled out in case of a negative PCR result ( A-II: ). Detecting β-d-glucan in serum can contribute to the diagnosis but not the follow-up of PCP ( A-II: ). A negative serum β-d-glucan result can exclude PCP in a patient at risk ( A-II: ), whereas a positive test result may indicate other fungal infections. Genotyping using multilocus sequence markers can be used to investigate suspected outbreaks ( A-II: ). The routine detection of dihydropteroate synthase mutations in cases of treatment failure is not recommended ( B-II: ) since these mutations do not affect response to high-dose co-trimoxazole. The clinical utility of these diagnostic tests for the early management of PCP should be further assessed in prospective, randomized interventional studies., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)
- Published
- 2016
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