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Query: UMLS:C0021051 (immunodeficiency)
 71,517 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Pneumocystis carinii infection is reported with increasing frequency as a cause of disease outside of the respiratory tract in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Extrapulmonary pneumocystosis is not limited to patients in any discrete risk group for HIV infection. Patients with HIV infection who develop extrapulmonary pneumocystosis frequently do not have concurrent P. carinii pneumonia. Signs and symptoms of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis are nonspecific but when present are frequently referable to the tissues or organs involved. Extrapulmonary pneumocystosis can be diagnosed by examination of tissue biopsies from affected sites using standard histologic techniques. Therapy with antimicrobial agents used to treat P. carinii pneumonia has been effective in some patients. An association between use of aerosolized pentamidine for prevention of P. carinii pneumonia and development of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis has been suggested but remains unconfirmed. Other factors such as the use of zidovudine and duration of immunodeficiency may also be important to the pathogenesis of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis. Further studies are needed to better identify risk factors that may predispose patients to the development of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis.
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PMID:Extrapulmonary pneumocystosis: clinical features in human immunodeficiency virus infection. 223 34

Extrapulmonary pneumocystosis is an exceedingly rare complication of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). Prior to the advent of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) epidemic, only 16 cases of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis in individuals who were immunocompromised by a variety of underlying diseases had been reported. Since the beginning of the HIV-1 and related PCP epidemic, at least 90 cases of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis have been reported. This review briefly presents a history of the discovery of P. carinii and its recognition as a human pathogen, the controversy regarding its taxonomy, and the epidemiology of this organism. A more detailed analysis of the incidence of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis in HIV-1-infected individuals and its occurrence despite widespread prophylaxis for PCP with either aerosolized pentamidine or systemic dapsone-trimethoprim is presented. The clinical features of published cases of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis in non-HIV-1-infected individuals are summarized and contrasted with those in HIV-1 infected individuals. The diagnosis of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis is discussed, and because clinical microbiologists and pathologists are the key individuals in establishing the diagnosis, the characteristic microscopic morphology of P. carinii as its appears when stained with a variety of stains is presented and reviewed. The review concludes with a brief discussion of treatments for extrapulmonary pneumocystosis.
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PMID:Extrapulmonary pneumocystosis. 922 59