The prevalence of Pneumocystis jirovecii among patients with different chronic pulmonary disorders in Ahvaz, Iran.

Background and Objectives: Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) is a chronic fungal infection that caused by P. ji- rovecii . 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. The current study was conducted to identify the preva- lence of P. jirovecii among the patients with chronic pulmonary disorders in Ahvaz, Iran. Materials and Methods: In the present study, 115 bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens were collected from patients. Samples were subjected to Nested-PCR with specific primers. The second PCR products were used for sequencing analysis. Results: Our findings demonstrated that 31(27.0%) of samples were positive for P. jirovecii . Nine patients (29%) have tuberculosis (TB) followed by, 1(3.2%) HIV positive and 21(67.7%) miscellaneous pulmonary disorders. Our results show that there was no significant differences between sex (male:female ratio, 17:14), TB, HIV and P. jirovecii in BAL samples (P>0.05). Conclusion: The current study is the first report from Ahvaz and it showed a relatively high frequency (27%) of P. jirovecii among patients with different pulmonary disorders. In addition Nested-PCR might be reliable technique for diagnosis of P. jirovecii , while the Grocott's methenamine silver (GMS) have a low sensitivity, which only two positive patients were identified.