Diagnostic accuracy of histopathologic and cytopathologic examination of Aspergillus species

Abstract

To assess the diagnostic accuracy of histopatho-logic and cytopathologic examination (HCE) of Aspergillus species (spp), we performed an 11-year retrospective review to correlate surgical/cytology cases with a diagnosis of Aspergillus spp with their concurrent fungal culture results. Diagnostic accuracy was defined as the percentage of cases with culture-proven Aspergillus spp divided by the number of cases diagnosed as Aspergillus spp on HCE that had growth on fungal culture. Ninety surgical/cytology cases with concurrent fungal culture were reviewed, 58 of which grew a fungal organism. Of these 58 cases, 45 grew an Aspergillus spp, whereas 13 grew an organism other than Aspergillus spp, including both common (Scedosporium, Fusarium, and Paecilomyces spp) and uncommon mimickers (Trichosporon loubieri), resulting in a diagnostic accuracy of 78%. The low diagnostic accuracy indicates that several fungal organisms can morphologically mimic Aspergillus spp and can only be distinguished by fungal culture and DNA sequencing.