ABSTRACT
The Aspergillus galactomannan enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (EIA) has been demonstrated to facilitate rapid and sensitive detection of invasive aspergillosis. However, test specificity has not been fully evaluated in non-Aspergillus fungal species. Of 53 fungal isolates, cross-reactivity was observed with 5 non-Aspergillus spp.: Blastomyces dermatitidis, Nigrospora oryzae, Paecilomyces lilacinus, Penicillium chrysogenum, and Trichothecium roseum.
Subject(s)
Aspergillus/classification , Mannans/classification , Mycological Typing Techniques/methods , Mycoses/diagnosis , Aspergillosis/diagnosis , Cross Reactions , Galactose/analogs & derivatives , Humans , Immunoenzyme Techniques/methods , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
We describe a filtration-based culture method to enhance sensitivity of routine culture for recovery of fungi from respiratory specimens. The new method resulted in an 8.3% (P = 0.0039) increase in recovery for all organisms and a 6.4% (P = 0.0391) for Candida species when compared to the conventional culture technique.
