Galactomannan Testing in Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid Facilitates the Diagnosis of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplant Recipients

TL;DR: Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is frequent and often fatal in immunosuppressed patients as mentioned in this paper, and timely diagnosis of IPA improves survival but is difficult to make.

TL;DR: A review of the scientific literature was done to generate a series of key recommendations for the appropriate use of microbiological, histological, and radiological diagnostic methods for diagnosis of invasive fungal diseases, and the role of microscopy in rapid diagnosis and identification of clinically significant isolates to species level.

TL;DR: These ATS-sponsored technical standards describe the equipment, personnel, competencies, and special procedures associated with FAE in children and highlight the importance of FAE-specific airway management techniques and anesthesia.

TL;DR: BAL may be the preferred diagnostic modality for the evaluation of potentially infectious pulmonary lesions because of lower complication and mortality rates; thus, choice of procedure depends on clinical suspicion of infection.

TL;DR: This study evaluates the diagnostic value of Aspergillus cultivation and antigen detection in bronchoscopically acquired material from 69 immunosuppressed patients, finding a 61% positive prediction rate for pulmonary aspergillosis.

TL;DR: Results were concordant with those of a nested PCR assay, which detected 90% of the patients with IPA, while galactomannan ELISA revealed positivity for 100% of these patients, suggesting that combined use of methods might improve the diagnosis of IPA.

TL;DR: GM EIA and qPCR assay add to the sensitivity of BAL for diagnosing IPA in high-risk patients, with excellent specificity, and may reduce dependence on invasive diagnostic procedures.

TL;DR: The detection of galactomannan in the serum of immunocompromised patients is widely used for the early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis and the test may also be useful when applied to bronchoalveolar lavage fluid specimens for clinical diagnosis.