High Pneumocystis jirovecii colonization rate among haemodialysis patients

Abstract

Haemodialysis patients have been found to have an increased risk of developing Pneumocystis pneumonia (PcP) compared to the control population. To the best of our knowledge, no data are available on pulmonary colonization with Pneumocystis jirovecii in haemodialysis patients; therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of pulmonary colonization with P. jirovecii in haemodialysis patients, and to find the related risk factors. Induced sputa of 62 haemodialysis patients were investigated using quantitative polymerase chain reaction for the presence of P. jirovecii. 20.9% of the patients were colonized with P. jirovecii and 46.2% of whom had CD4 cell counts below 400/μl. There was no significant correlation between colonization and time on dialysis treatment. As haemodialysis patients seem to be at higher risk of PcP than the general population, doctors should be aware of the high rate of P. jirovecii colonization amongst them. Furthermore, colonized patients remain a potential source of transmission of P. jirovecii to other patients or to health care workers.

Keywords:

• Pneumocystis jirovecii
• pulmonary colonization
• haemodialysis

Disclosure statement

None of the authors have a conflict of interest to declare.