Pathogenic microorganism detection in AIDS patients using bronchoalveolar lavage fluid

This study aimed to investigate the use of fiberoptic bronchoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage in the diagnosis of pulmonary pathogenic microorganism infection in AIDS patients. We retrospectively analyzed the clini-cal data, fiberoptic bronchoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid laboratory examinations of 209 AIDS patients with pulmonary infection. Among 209 patients, we found 42 cases of mycobacterial infection, 3 cases of bacterial infection, 58 cases of pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), 27 cases that were fungal positive, 99 cases of CMV, and 103 cases positive for GM test of which 83 cases were considered Aspergillus positive. BALF pathogen distribu-tion was related to CD4+ T lymphocyte count. The primary pathogens of pulmonary infection in AIDS patients were cytomegalovirus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, fungi, and Pneumocystis carinii. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy and bron-choalveolar lavage are important in the diagnosis of pathogenic microorganisms in lung infections of AIDS patients.