Pneumocystis colonization in asthmatic patients not receiving oral corticosteroid therapy

Emma L. Davey, Rhonda E. Colombo, Charles Fiorentino, Gary Fahle, Richard T. Davey, Kenneth N. Olivier, Joseph A. Kovacs*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Pneumocystis jirovecii can colonize patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. To determine if colonization occurs in asthma patients, sputum samples from 10 patients with mild asthma, who were not receiving oral corticosteroids, were evaluated by a sensitive real-time PCR assay that targets a multicopy gene of P. jirovecii. 2 patients (20%) had Pneumocystis DNA detected; 1 patient had 3 positive samples over an 11-day period. Thus, Pneumocystis colonization occurs in asthma patients, and further studies are warranted to evaluate its role in airways disease.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)800-802
Number of pages3
JournalJournal of Investigative Medicine
Volume65
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Asthma
  • Lung Diseases

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