View clinical trials related to Pneumocystis.
Filter by:Corticosteroids exposure is a common risk factor for invasive fungal infections. Systemic corticosteroid therapy treats several medical conditions, including rejection in solid organ transplant recipients, malignancy, and autoimmune or inflammatory diseases. Corticosteroid exposure is a well-known risk factor for developing PJP. Still, it remains unclear how prior corticosteroid exposure influences the presentation, severity, and mortality of opportunistic fungal infections. The investigators aim to prospectively characterize the corticosteroid use as a dose response to inform risk of invasive fungal infections.
Incidence and morbi-mortality of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) are increasing. Early and fast diagnosis and treatment improve PCP prognosis. Biological diagnosis is based on the detection of Pneumocystis jirovecii, mainly by PCR, in broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) obtained from bronchial fibroscopy. However this invasive exam is not always possible in emergency in suspected patient and others non invasive (sputa) and/or non-targeted (bronchial aspiration) are sent to the laboratory (25% of cases, data from the Grenoble University Hospital). Diagnosis performances of these non invasive/non-targeted samples are not clearly established. In this study, the investigators aimed to establish the diagnosis value of non-invasive and/or non-targeted respiratory samples (oral fluids, sputa and bronchial aspiration) for the PCP diagnosis, compared to the gold-standard (Pneumocystis PCR on BAL, beta-D-glucans testing on serum and radio-clinical records).
Despite the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), lung diseases remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in those with HIV infection. There have been no large-scale studies detailing pulmonary complications in the HAART era. Substantial gaps exist in our knowledge of the spectrum and pathogenesis of pulmonary disorders in this population, particularly in women and minorities whose numbers with HIV or AIDS have increased. The Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) and the Women's Interagency Health Study (WIHS) are prospective, multi-center cohorts that follow approximately 5000 HIV+ subjects and HIV- controls. Although pulmonary disease has not been an area of focus, these established cohorts provide a unique opportunity to systematically study pulmonary complications of HIV infection. Emphysema is of particular interest in the current HIV era because it is likely to increase as this population lives longer with chronic HIV. HIV-infected persons have an increased incidence of emphysema compared to those without HIV infection, and it has been hypothesized that this accelerated disease progression is the result of one or more latent infectious agents that amplify the pulmonary inflammation. Accelerated emphysema was described in HIV infection in a predominantly male population before HAART. The current prevalence and characteristics of HIV-associated emphysema, and the potential impact of gender, have not been rigorously defined.