Lung Injury in COVID-19 and Pneumocystis Pneumonia. Similarities and Differences

Abstract

In the regions with the high prevalence of HIV infection, it is necessary to perform differential diagnosis of lung injury caused by COVID-19 and pneumocystis pneumonia.The main complaints in COVID-19 and pneumocystis pneumonia are similar and include dyspnea, weakness, cough, fever, and ground glass radiographic syndrome. However, sputum production was more common in pneumocystis pneumonia. The most important differences were frequent anosmia in COVID-19 and its absence in pneumocystis pneumonia, frequent detection of oropharyngeal candidiasis in pneumocystis pneumonia which was not seen in COVID-19.Serum hepcidin concentration has a high diagnostic potential and indicates a greater likelihood of COVID-19 than pneumocystis pneumonia at values ≤ 768.044 pg/ml (ROC AUC 0.977; p < 0.001).