A patient with leukemic lymphosarcoma in partial remission gradually developed dyspnea and patchy lung infiltrates. Pneumocystis carinii organisms were demonstrated on sputum smears. The pneumonia resolved rapidly during pentamidine therapy. With reactivation of the leukemia, death ensued, and, at postmortem examination, pneumocystis organisms could not be demonstrated in serial sections of the previously involved lung.
LINICAL RECOGNITION OF PNEUMOCYSTIS C carinii pneumonia, in patients treated with corticosteroids, antimetabolites, or alkylating agents, is of clinical importance because curative treatment of this infection can be achieved with pentamidine isethionate.1.5, 7 Although lung biopsy has been the usual method of diagnosing the disease, it can be established from sputum stained with methenamine silver and Giemsa stains.
A patient with lymphosarcoma developed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia as established by identification of the organism in sputum smears. This infection was successfully treated with pentamidine isethionate as demonstrated by successive negative examinations of sputum, return of the chest roentgenograms to normal, and, at postmortem examination, a failure to demonstrate the organism in serial lung sections of the previously involved lung.
CASE REPORT
T h e diagnosis of Stage TV lymphosarcoma was established in a 19-year-old Caucasian male