[Quantitative PCR for early diagnosis of invasive fungal infections in patients with hematologic malignancies]

Abstract

This study was aimed to establish the approach of quantitative PCR (q-PCR) for diagnosis of invasive fungal infections (IFI) in patients with hematologic malignancies. Specimens from 40 patients with hematologic malignancies were chosen for q-PCR and galactomannan (GM) test. The 28S rRNA, a real high consensus sequence of fungi, was selected as target gene to design primer and probe. The DNA of fungal species was extracted from serum specimens. The results showed that q-PCR sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were 0.89, 0.85, 0.89, 0.85 respectively; GM test sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were 0.83, 0.80, 0.88, 0.73 respectively; as combined q-PCR with GM test, these values were 0.94, 0.85, 0.89, 0.92 respectively. It is concluded that the q-PCR assay can be used for early diagnosis for IFI in patients with hematologic malignancies, q-PCR combined with GM test can enhance the diagnosis sensitivity for IFI.