β-d-Glucan kinetics for the assessment of treatment response in Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia

Serum (1→3)-β-d-Glucan (BG) is a biomarker for Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP). However, information concerning its usefulness for monitoring the clinical course is lacking. We conducted a retrospective study to investigate whether consecutive BG-measurements can be used to assess treatment response in PJP. Analysis of sera from 18 patients during PJP therapy shows that decreasing BG-levels strongly correlate with a favourable clinical course. In contrast, increasing BG-levels were associated with treatment failure or fatal outcome is only 44% of patients. As a consequence, BG-kinetics might be used to confirm treatment success but seem to be of limited value for the identification of treatment failure.