Development and validation of a Pneumocystis jirovecii real-time polymerase chain reaction assay for diagnosis of Pneumocystis pneumonia

Abstract

Pneumocystis pneumonia is caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii, an opportunistic fungal pathogen. Presently, many clinical microbiology laboratories rely on direct microscopic detection of P jirovecii. The validation, and clinical and laboratory development of a qualitative P jirovecii real-time polymerase chain reaction assay for the rapid detection of Pneumocystis pneumonia is discussed by the authors. In addition, this new technique is compared with the existing gold-standard immunofluorescence assay.