Food Microbiology

Diagnosis of Invasive Aspergillozis (IA) in patients with haematologic malignancies and under the risk of IA may be uncertain or delay because of nonspecific clinic presentation and difficult application techniques of conventional methods. Early diagnosis can provide initial antifungal therapy and prevent high mortality. In this study, we investigated the performance of Aspergillus lateral flow device and Galactomannan (GM) antigen test for the IA diagnosis of patients with febrile neutropenic episodes. The study was conducted in Akdeniz University Medical Faculty Hospital, Pediatric Haematology and Stem Cell Transplantation Units. 365 serum samples of 29 febrile neutropenic episodes belong to 21 patients with risk of IA were tested. According to the reference diagnosis of revised definitions of EORTC/MSG criteria, one patient was proven IA, 14 patients were probable IA, 2 patients were possible IA and 10 patients were under the risk of IA. While GM test had higher sensitivity, Aspergillus lateral flow device had higher specifity. Aspergillus lateral flow device is an easy to use assay with short hands-on time, but as long as combination of this assay with GM antigen test can lead increased sensitivity for diagnosis of IA.