A Comparison of Aspergillus and Mucorales PCR Testing of Different BAL Fractions from Patients with Suspected Invasive Pulmonary Fungal Disease

Springer J, White PL, Kessel J, Wieters I, Teschner D, Korczynski D, Liebregts T, Cornely OA, Schwartz S, Elgeti T, Meintker L, Krause S, Posso RB, Heinz WJ, Fuhrmann S, Vehreschild JJ, Einsele H, Rickerts V, Loeffler J (2017)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

DOI: 10.1128/JCM.01655-17

Abstract

In patients with haematological malignancies, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid specimens (BALF) are commonly used for the diagnosis of mould infections. However, it is not clear whether the cellular pellet (P) or the supernatant fraction (S) of the BALF is optimal for molecular diagnostic testing. Thus, 99 BALF specimens from 96 haematology patients with or without allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant were collected. Pellets and supernatants were processed alone and in combination (S/P) by two fungal-specific real-time PCR assays compliant with international recommendations. S/P revealed superior results in comparison to S and P alone, both single fractions showed reduced sensitivity for the detection of Aspergillus DNA (82% (S) and 43% (P), respectively). In 57% of the samples, the combination of S/P generated a lower Cq value compared to S or P testing alone. Five and 16 out of 28 samples would have been missed if only S or P was analysed, respectively. No sample was positive in S or P only. Similar results were obtained for the detection of Mucorales DNA in BALF (reduced sensitivity of 67% (S) and 50% (P), respectively). Study patients were categorized according to the current EORTC/MSG classification for invasive fungal disease (IFD), revealing 35 patients with proven/probable IFD (36%), 47 patients with possible IFD (49%) and 14 cases of undetermined IFD (15%).

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How to cite

APA:

Springer, J., White, P.L., Kessel, J., Wieters, I., Teschner, D., Korczynski, D.,... Loeffler, J. (2017). A Comparison of Aspergillus and Mucorales PCR Testing of Different BAL Fractions from Patients with Suspected Invasive Pulmonary Fungal Disease. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. https://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.01655-17

MLA:

Springer, Jan, et al. "A Comparison of Aspergillus and Mucorales PCR Testing of Different BAL Fractions from Patients with Suspected Invasive Pulmonary Fungal Disease." Journal of Clinical Microbiology (2017).

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