Background: To analyse the etiology, diagnostic methods and response to therapy in 30 episodes of pneumonia diagnosed in 17 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) between 1995 and 2000.
Patients and method: In each episode of pneumonia the following data were analysed: age, gender, treatment of CLL, antiinfectious prophylaxis, granulocytopenia, CD4/CD8 lymphocytes ratio, hipogammaglobulinemia, origin of pneumonia (nosocomial or community-acquired), localisation, respiratory insufficiency, need for mechanical ventilation, antimicrobial therapy and response. Diagnostic methods included blood and sputum cultures, fiberoptic bronchoscopy and search for antigens in urine (Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1, galactomannan, and Streptococcus pneumoniae).
Results: Median age of the series was 60 yr. (range 50-86) and 12 patients were male. Chlorambucil and prednisone were used in 13 cases and fludarabine in 8. Granulocytopenia was present in 14 episodes, hypogammaglobulinemia was seen in 22 and CD4/CD8 ratio was lower than 1 in 8 out of 14 evaluable cases. Etiology of pneumonia was established in 16 episodes (53%). Fiberoptic bronchoscopy was the most useful technique (83% of positive diagnoses) followed by blood cultures (38%). Two patients were diagnosed of aspergillosis at autopsy. Pneumococcus was the most frequent agent (5 cases) followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4), Pneumocystis carinii (2) and Aspergillus fumigatus (2). One out of the two patients with P. carinii pneumonia had received fludarabin and the remaining was treated with prednisone for long time. Ten patients (30%) had died: P. aeruginosa (3 cases), P. carinii (2), A. fumigatus (2), Mycobacterium xenopi (1), and unknown microorganism (2).
Conclusions: In this series of CLL patients the frequency of etiologic diagnosis of pneumonias was good. Pneumococcus was the most frequent microorganism. Pneumonias caused by opportunistic microorganisms were associated to the treatment with fludarabin or prednisone and were associated to a high mortality rate.