title: Detection of Toxoplasma gondii by competitive DNA amplification of bronchoalveolar lavage samples.
abstract: The prevalence of pulmonary toxoplasmosis was assessed by a prospective analysis of 144 bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples using competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to avoid false-negative results due to PCR techniques. Six samples were excluded because they contained amplification reaction inhibitors. None of the samples from the 37 immunocompetent patients and only 1 sample (1.7%) from the 59 immunocompromised patients without human immunodeficiency virus infection were PCR-positive. In contrast, Toxoplasma gondii DNA was found in 6 (14%) of 42 samples from patients with AIDS. All 6 patients had < or = 40 CD4 cells/microL and anti-Toxoplasma antibodies, and 5 had other sites of Toxoplasma infection. Six other AIDS patients who had received treatment for cerebral toxoplasmosis were PCR-negative. Thus, pulmonary toxoplasmosis is frequent in AIDS patients who have other sites of Toxoplasma infection and low CD4 lymphocyte counts and who are not receiving prophylaxis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Parasitologie, Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bretagne
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vidaud
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nhieu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fleury-Feith
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001992:Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / Q000469:parasitology*; D002648:Child; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014123:Toxoplasmosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan