Comparacion de 3 técnicas para el diagnóstico de la neumocistosis pulmonar en pacientes con SIDA / [Comparison of 3 tests for the diagnosis of pulmonary pneumocystosis in AIDS patients]

ABSTRACT

Since Pneumocystis jiroveci cannot be grown in vitro, laboratory diagnosis of pulmonary pneumocystosis (PCP) has been based mainly upon microscopy. The usefulness of 3 diagnostic methods of PCP was compared in 111 bronchoalveolar fluids belonging to an equal number of AIDS patients assisted in different wards of the Muñiz Hospital. Wet mount preparations, a rapid modification of Grocott technique and the direct immunofluorescence (DIF) with monoclonal antibodies were compared for the diagnosis of PCP on smears of clinical samples. Similar results (15 positive and 90 negative) were obtained with these three techniques in 105 (93.6