Author(s):
Rego de Figueiredo, I ; Vieira Alves, R ; Drummond Borges, D ; Torres, M ; Lourenço, F ; Antunes, AM ; Gruner, H ; Panarra, A
Date: 2019
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.17/3317
Origin: Repositório do Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, EPE
Subject(s): HCC MED; HCC INF; Comorbidity; Cross-Sectional Studies; HIV Infections/epidemiology; HIV Infections/immunology; Hospital Mortality; Immunocompromised Host; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase/blood; Pneumonia, Pneumocystis/epidemiology; Pneumonia, Pneumocystis/immunology; Pneumonia, Pneumocystis/mortality; Portugal/epidemiology; Respiration, Artificial/statistics & numerical data; Retrospective Studies
Description
Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) is caused by the fungus Pneumocystis jirovecii, and its incidence has been on the rise in immunosuppressed patients without HIV. We performed a cross sectional study in patients with PCP and assessed demographic, clinical presentation and outcome measures such as mechanical ventilation and mortality differences between HIV and non-HIV patients. The two groups were statistically significantly different, with the HIV group being younger (45.5 years vs 55.9 years, p-value 0.001) and mostly composed of male patients (69% vs 31%, p-value <0.001). Also, the HIV patients had higher percentage of respiratory complaints (90% vs 68%, p-value 0.02) and lactate dehydrogenase elevation (73% vs 40%, p-value 0.001). In contrast, non-HIV patients had worse outcomes with higher incidence of invasive mechanical ventilation (23% vs 46%, p-value 0.005) and in-hospital mortality (13% vs 37%, p-value 0.002). These results reflect the literature and should raise awareness to a potentially fatal medical situation of increasing incidence.
