[A preliminary investigation on early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis in patients with blood diseases by using circulating galactomannan test]

Abstract

The objective of this study was to explore the useful value of circulating galactomannan (GM) for early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis. All 141 patients were classified as 103 patients of clinical and possible diagnosis, and 38 non-Aspergillus patients. 209 serum samples for the detection of GM by Platelia Aspergillus were collected before anti-fungal vaccine therapy. ELISA method was used in detection of GM. The results showed that (1) the sensitivity of 87.5%, specificity of 81.6%, positive prediction of 66.7% and negative prediction of 93.9% were determined by using cut-off value. According to the result of ELISA, the clinical diagnosed patients was up to 48, while the possible diagnosed patients were 55. (2) Among 62 patients with consecutive examinations of serum samples, 50 patients were successfully diagnosed and treated, while 12 patients died. A progressive reduction of GM level was found in survivors, however, the patients of poor prognosis showed higher antigen titres. It is concluded that GM test has more significance for earlier diagnosis of aspergillosis, the concentration of GM is related to prognosis of disease.