Comparing a novel Aspergillus lateral-flow device with the Platelia EIA for rapid diagnosis.

Submitted by Aspergillus Administrator on 10 June 2013

The detection of galactomannan in patient’s serum is central to the diagnosis of invasive fungal infection. Any delay in diagnosing an invasive fungal infection and therefore a delay in treatment leads to a poor outcome. A recent paper has compared the performance from a novel  lateral flow device method, Aspergillus-(LFD) with the widely used Patelia® galactomannan (EIA) detection method.

Serum was tested from 101 patients after undergoing an allogeneic stem cell transplantation.By the end of hospitalisation, one proven, nine probable and 20 possible cases of invasive fungal infection were identified.
The Aspergillus-LFD showed a comparable diagnostic performance to the GM-EIA. However, if the results have to be confirmed by a second positive serum, then the GM-EIA exhibited a superior sensitivity.

Comparing the 2 methods in terms of practicability, the Aspergillus-LFD was demonstrated to be a quick (15 min) and easy-to-use test for single-patient detection of Aspergillus antigens or to rule them out, but not if more than one positive serum is required. Link