PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Emma L Davey
AU  - Rhonda E Colombo
AU  - Charles Fiorentino
AU  - Gary Fahle
AU  - Richard T Davey, Jr
AU  - Kenneth N Olivier
AU  - Joseph A Kovacs
TI  - <em>Pneumocystis</em> colonization in asthmatic patients not receiving oral corticosteroid therapy
AID  - 10.1136/jim-2016-000381
DP  - 2017 Feb 13
TA  - Journal of Investigative Medicine
PG  - jim-2016-000381
4099  - http://hw-f5-jim.highwire.org/content/early/2017/02/13/jim-2016-000381.short
4100  - http://hw-f5-jim.highwire.org/content/early/2017/02/13/jim-2016-000381.full
AB  - Pneumocystis jirovecii can colonize patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. To determine if colonization occurs in asthma patients, sputum samples from 10 patients with mild asthma, who were not receiving oral corticosteroids, were evaluated by a sensitive real-time PCR assay that targets a multicopy gene of P. jirovecii. 2 patients (20%) had Pneumocystis DNA detected; 1 patient had 3 positive samples over an 11-day period. Thus, Pneumocystis colonization occurs in asthma patients, and further studies are warranted to evaluate its role in airways disease.Trial registration number NCT01113034.