ECIL guidelines for the diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in patients with haematological malignancies and stem cell transplant recipients

Abstract

The Fifth European Conference on Infections in Leukaemia (ECIL-5) convened a meeting to establish evidencebased recommendations for using tests to diagnose Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) in adult patients with haematological malignancies. Immunofluorescence assays are recommended as the most sensitive microscopic method (recommendation A-II). Real-time PCR is recommended for the routine diagnosis of PCP (A-II). Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid is recommended as the best specimen as it yields good negative predictive value (A-II). Non-invasive specimens can be suitable alternatives (B-II), acknowledging that PCP cannot be ruled out in case of a negative PCR result (A-II). Detecting b-D-glucan in serum can contribute to the diagnosis but not the follow-up of PCP (A-II). A negative serum b-D-glucan result can exclude PCP in a patient at risk (A-II), whereas a positive test result may indicate other fungal infections. Genotyping using multilocus sequence markers can be used to investigate suspected outbreaks (A-II). The routine detection of dihydropteroate synthase mutations in cases of treatment failure is not recommended (B-II) since these mutations do not affect response to high-dose co-trimoxazole. The clinical utility of these diagnostic tests for the early management of PCP should be further assessed in prospective, randomized interventional studies.