The Rare Imitator : Pulmonary Nocardiosis Mimics Tuberculosis Reactivation

Pulmonary Nocardiosis is a rare bacterial infection of lungs, caused by a filamentous bacterium. Immunocompromised people are known to be at danger, but there are other new emerging risk factors to consider. The presentation and clinical course in such patients differ from the previous. Here the present case is aimed to underline the presentation and diagnosis in non-risk individual.

Seven cases of severe pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in children with non-human immunodeficiency virus infection and a literature review / 中国小儿急救医学

Objective:To summarize the clinical features and treatment of pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia(PCP) in children with non-human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) infection.Methods:A retrospective study was performed on seven cases of severe PCP children with non-HIV infection who were admitted to PICU of The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital and PICU of Xianyang Rainbow Hospital from May 1, 2015 to May 1, 2021.The risk factors, clinical manifestations, laboratory results, pulmonary radiological features, treatment and outcomes were observed.Results:Seven children with PCP, including four males and three females, aged from 13 months to 85 months[(42.4±26.8) months], were all associated with underlying diseases, and most of which was hematological malignancies.Six children had a history of using TMP-SMX for PCP prevention, but four of them stopped by themselves and infected PCP in 2 to 4 weeks.All children had hypoxic respiratory failure, whose OI was 30.6±3.4, and presented with fever, dry cough, progressive dyspnea but no lung rales in the early stage.LDH[(745.7±317.0) U/L] and β-D-glucan[(513.8±225.0) pg/mL] increased in all patients.Chest CT showed diffused interstitial changes in bilateral lung fields associated with multiple exudative lesions.Among the anti-Pneumocystis Jirovecii treatment regimens, all cases began the treatment in the first three days during the admission, five cases were treated with intravenous TMP-SMX, and two cases were treated with oral TMP-SMX + caspofungin, with a course of 21 days.All children were also treated with glucocorticoid at the same time.Three days after the treatment of PCP, two children were worsened and one of them died, while another one started to recover on the 6th day of the regimen.The remaining five cases began to show clinical improvement after 3~7 days of PCP treatment.Finally six children were cured and one was died.Conclusion:PCP infection of children without HIV has high risk of destruction in immune system.TMP-SMX can prevent PCP effectively.In the severe PCP cases, early commencement of intravenous TMP-SMX can reduce the mortality rate.In the absence of intravenous TMP-SMX, oral TMP-SMX can be used with caspofungin.

Research Progress on the prophylaxis for pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in non-HIV immunocompromised patients / 中华急诊医学杂志

Pneumocystis pneumonia ( PCP) is a disease affecting immunocompromised patients.PCP among these patients is associated with significant morbidity and mortality.In this paper, the prevention crowd of prevention, the effective of prevention and means of prevention are reviewed.

High-throughput virtual screening for novel dhfr inhibitors of P. Jiroveci from the zinc database.

Many of the opportunistic infections that occur at this late stage can be fatal and since that Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) is a leading opportunistic infection found among immunocompromised (CD4 cell < 200) patients worldwide. DHFR is responsible for the growth and maturation of sporozoites stage (life cycle) in Pneumocystis as reported. Currently, 13 million chemical compounds are available for virtual screening in ZINC database. The biological information of four known drug molecules like TMP/SMX, Dapsone, Atovaquone and Pentamidine were collected from the PubChem compound database. Q-Site Finder online tool was used to determine the active site of DHFR in P. jiroveci. LogP values of chemical compounds were identified with the Atom-additive method. Since, existing drugs are synthetic chemicals that give more side effects in Pneumocystis affected patients. Polar surface area value of oxamide (86.18) was predicted to be in the ranges of existing drug values. Pentamidine was proved to be a more efficient ligand based on the dock score of -26.3398 still could not be considered as the natural compound oxamide also was highly comparable with the value of -20.3173. The binding affinity of the selected molecule was analyzed through Pose View and LigPlot.

Impaired potassium handling after acute oral potassium loading in outpatients on standard dose of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole(TMP/SMX) / 대한내과학회지

BACKGROUND: TMP/SMX has been shown to cause hyperkalemia in a few outpatients on standard-dose. This prospective study was aimed at investigating other associated factors inducing clinically important hyperkalemia in outpatients on standard-dose of TMP/SMX. METHODS: Age-matched diabetic(n=22) and non-diabetic (n=20) patients with UTI on standard dose of TMP/SMX for 5 days were given acute oral intake of 40 mEq of potassium chloride(KCl). RESULTS: Before the intake of TMP/SMX, basal levels of serum potassium(K), serum BUN and creatinine, plasma renin activity(PRA), aldosterone(PA), and transtubular potassium gradient(TTKG) were comparable between diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. Also after TMP/SMX was taken, all parameters didnt reveal any overt changes except a slightly increased serum K but not significantly (from 4.20+/-0.15 to 4.14+/-0.21mEq/L in non-diabetics; from 4.13+/-0.18 to 4.25+/-0.13mEq/L in diabetics). Following acute oral KCl load, however, the peak increases of serum K changes were significantly higher in diabetics compared to non-diabetics(0.34 0.06 vs 0.62 0.09mEq/L, p 5.0 mEq/L). After KCl load, PRA did not show any significant changes, whereas PA was increased simultaneously with the increments of serum K in both diabetic subgroups hyperkalemic(n=8) and normokalemic (n=14) diabetics. But increment was blunted in hyperkalemic diabetic subgroup. TTKG was increased prominently in normokalemic diabetic subgroup(9.20 from 4.50), while it was slightly increased in hyperkalemic diabetic subgroup(4.63 from 3.79mEq/L). There was statistical difference between two subgroups(p < 0.05). In conclusion, Besides the known effect of blocking sodium channels in distal K secreting cells by TMP/SMX, insulinopenia(DM). Hypoaldosteronism with its decreased tubular bioactivity, and increased exogenous K intake in concert could cause clinically overt hyperkalemia on standard-dose of TMP/SMX. When standard- dose of TMP/SMX is administered to patients with deranged K homeostasis, especially to diabetics with hypoaldosteronism, blood K level should be monitored meticulously to avoid hyperkalemia.