The best way to make the diagnosis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia is to perform a Gomori methenamine silver (GMS) stain on the lung tissue or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid.

• 诊断卡氏肺孢子虫肺炎最好方法是取肺组织或支气管肺泡灌洗液做GMS染色。孢囊壁被染色后，卡氏肺孢子虫将呈现诸如下列外观，压碎的乒乓球，或新月状，或折叠了的球体；或扁平的沙滩球，或瘪了的网球；等等...