• Jumpei Taniguchi, Shotaro Aso, Hiroki Matsui, Kiyohide Fushimi, and Hideo Yasunaga.
• Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Health Economics, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo, Japan.
• Intern. Med. 2025 Jan 3.

AbstractBackground Data on the first-line treatment options for patients with Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) without human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are limited. Therefore, we evaluated the outcome of pentamidine compared to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) in non-HIV patients with PCP. Methods We used data from the Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination Inpatient Database. We included non-HIV PCP patients who initially received TMP-SMX or pentamidine between July 2010 and March 2022. We categorized eligible patients into TMP-SMX and pentamidine groups and performed a propensity score overlap weighting analysis to compare in-hospital mortality between the groups. Results Among 5,870 eligible patients, 5,456 and 414 received TMP-SMX and pentamidine, respectively. Pentamidine treatment was associated with a higher in-hospital mortality than TMP-SMX treatment in the propensity score overlap weighting analysis (23.6% vs. 40.1%; risk difference, 16.5%; 95% confidence interval, 10.8-22.2%; p<0.001). Conclusions Based on these findings, pentamidine may not be as effective as TMP-SMX for treating PCP in non-HIV patients.

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