title: Pneumocystis jerovecii pneumonia in a patient with untreated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: a novel case and postulations concerning the mechanism.
abstract: Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), even when severe, is not directly associated with opportunistic infections. Opportunistic infections that occur with CLL are almost exclusively related to immunosuppression caused by chemotherapeutic drugs used to treat CLL. We report a case of Pneumocystis jirovecii (PJ) pneumonia that occurred in a patient with untreated CLL with pulmonary involvement. We suspect that PJ pneumonia resulted from an inadequate immune response in the lung parenchyma resulting from excessive local accumulation of CLL cells.
authors.affiliation: 3rd Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Sismanoglion Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Alexandros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalkanis
authors.forename: Marc A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Judson
authors.forename: Mark B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Napier
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy; D018893:Bronchoalveolar Lavage; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D015451:Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D045363:Pneumocystis carinii / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D011020:Pneumonia, Pneumocystis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed