Bronchoalveolar lavage is usually employed for molecular diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii but requires a specialized procedure. By contrast, nasopharyngeal (NP) specimens are easily obtained. In this retrospective study of 35 patients with paired NP and bronchoscopy specimens, NP specimens had a 100% negative percent agreement (95% CI 80.5-100) but only 72.2% positive percent agreement (95% CI 46.5-90.3).
Keywords: PCR; Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia; bronchoalveolar lavage specimens; nasopharyngeal specimens.