Diagnosing Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia by cytological examination of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid: report of 15 cases

Sixty episodes of pneumonia occurring in 53 immunosuppressed patients were investigated by bronchoalveolar lavage. Pneumocystis carinii was diagnosed on 15 (25%) occasions. In all cases the Papanicolaou stained lavage fluid presented a distinctive appearance and contained abundant, often biphasic, s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical pathology 1986-09, Vol.39 (9), p.945-949
Main Authors: Young, J A, Stone, J W, McGonigle, R J, Adu, D, Michael, J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Bronchi - pathology
Female
Human mycoses
Humans
Infectious diseases
Macrophages
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Mycoses
Pneumonia, Pneumocystis - diagnosis
Pneumonia, Pneumocystis - pathology
Pulmonary Alveoli - pathology
Staining and Labeling
Therapeutic Irrigation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Sixty episodes of pneumonia occurring in 53 immunosuppressed patients were investigated by bronchoalveolar lavage. Pneumocystis carinii was diagnosed on 15 (25%) occasions. In all cases the Papanicolaou stained lavage fluid presented a distinctive appearance and contained abundant, often biphasic, staining, "honeycomb" debris, and few alveolar macrophages. The Grocott methenamine silver technique confirmed the presence of characteristic cystic organisms in the debris in all 15 instances. Cysts containing internal sporozoites were identified in Gram stained material only with difficulty. Neither May-Grünwald-Giemsa stain nor fluorescence microscopy under ultraviolet light were effective for routine investigation.
ISSN:0021-9746
1472-4146
DOI:10.1136/jcp.39.9.945