Diagnostic accuracy of the Aspergillus‐specific bronchoalveolar lavage lateral‐flow assay in haematological malignancy patients |
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| Authors: | Juergen Prattes Michaela Lackner Susanne Eigl Frederike Reischies Reinhard B. Raggam Christoph Koidl Holger Flick Robert Wurm Michael Palfner Albert Wölfler Peter Neumeister Christopher R. Thornton Robert Krause Cornelia Lass‐Flörl Martin Hoenigl |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Section 2. of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria;3. Division of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria;4. Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria;5. Clinical Institute of Medical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria;6. Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria;7. Division of Hematology, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria;8. Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK;9. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, USA |
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| Abstract: | We evaluated the performance of the Aspergillus‐specific lateral‐flow device (LFD) test for diagnosing invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in patients with underlying haematological malignancies. Participating centres were the two Austrian University Hospitals of Graz and Innsbruck. LFD performance was evaluated with 95 bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples from 72 patients collected prospectively in Graz, and with 24 BALF bio bank samples from 23 patients (21 samples with probable IPA) in Innsbruck. Invasive fungal infections were classified according to the revised European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer/Mycoses Study Group criteria. Overall, 27 patients (30 samples) had probable IPA, 32 (43 samples) possible and 36 (46 samples) did not fulfil IPA criteria. The vast majority of patients – in particular those with probable IPA – received mould‐active treatment before bronchoscopy. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative‐predictive‐value for probable IPA diagnosis using the BALF‐LFD test were 71%, 76%, 35% and 94% for the Graz cohort. Sensitivity of the BALF‐LFD test for probable IPA was 57% in Innsbruck bio bank samples. Our results indicate that the BALF‐LFD‐test provides fast results with moderate sensitivities in patients with underlying haematological malignancies. Similar to other diagnostic tests and biomarkers sensitivity of the test may be influenced by ongoing systemic mould‐active treatment. |
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| Keywords: | Aspergillus lateral‐flow device test invasive aspergillosis haematological malignancies bronchoalveolar lavage galactomannan |
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