Specific Detection of Pneumocystis jirovecii in Clinical Samples by Flow Cytometry

Pneumocystis jirovecii is an opportunistic pathogen responsible for severe pneumonia in immunocompromised patients. Flow cytometry (FC) is a method widely used in different areas of clinical diagnosis like hematology and immunology. Recently it has started to be used in microbiology with a great potential for diagnosis of emergent microorganisms in clinical samples, especially when present in low numbers. The detection of Pneumocystis jirovecii in respiratory samples can be performed by FC, using specific monoclonal antibodies. Considering clinical diagnosis as a reference method, we previously showed FC to be 100% sensitive and specific when compared to immunofluorescence. Being an automated method, it is faster and less subject to human error than microscopic evaluation.