comments on ''detection of galactomannan in the bronchoalveolar lavage of high-risk patients with invasive aspergillosis admitted at the intensive care unit'' by khodavaisy et al.  awt-sep    awt-sep    awt-sep    awt-sep    awt-sep    awt-sep  galactomannan in bronchoalveolar lavage for diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis  we read with interest the prospective study by khod...

The Aspergillus galactomannan test was performed on cerebrospinal fluid and serum samples from 5 patients with probable cerebral aspergillosis and from 16 control patients. Cerebrospinal fluid galactomannan levels were significantly higher in aspergillosis patients, and most galactomannan was produced intrathecally. Comparison of serum galactomannan values in pulmonary and cerebral aspergillosi...

OBJECTIVES This study sought to compare the sensitivities of serum galactomannan and bronchoalveolar lavage galactomannan in diagnosing invasive aspergillosis in solid-organ transplant recipients (lung and heart). MATERIALS AND METHODS This study took place in the lung transplant center of the National Research Institute for Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. All patients with clinical and radiol...

Voriconazole is the agent of choice for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis in children at least 2 years of age. The galactomannan index is a routinely used diagnostic marker for invasive aspergillosis and can be useful for following the clinical response to antifungal treatment. The aim of this study was to develop a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) mathematical model that links the...

The chicken egg white ovoinhibitor, a multi-type proteinase inhibitor, was conjugated with galactomannan through the Maillard reaction in a controlled dry heating state at 60 degrees C and 65% relative humidity. The formation of an ovoinhibitor-galactomannan conjugate during dry heating was confirmed by SDS-PAGE. The resulting ovoinhibitor-galactomannan conjugate showed almost the same inhibito...

We describe the case of a patient with improving invasive aspergillosis and paradoxically rising serum galactomannan levels in the presence of chronic renal failure and ongoing hemodialysis. Dialysate tested negative for galactomannan, demonstrating the inability of treatments such as hemodialysis to clear Aspergillus antigen from serum. In patients with renal failure and aspergillosis, rising ...

In a recent issue of Critical Care, Maria Schroeder et al. [1] reported a prospective observational study involving 85 patients who had positive Aspergillus cultures or had only a positive galactomannan test. They hypothesized that a diagnostic algorithm including the detection of galactomannan in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) would increase the diagnostic sensitivity for invasive pulmona...

Detection of galactomannan has become widely available for diagnosing invasive aspergillosis. The test characteristics, using the PlateliaTM enzyme-immunoassay, have been well described. This assay could potentially also be useful for the early evaluation of the efficacy of antifungal therapy and for predicting the outcome in terms of response and survival. In this systematic review, we assesse...

A double-direct sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay that uses a rat anti-galactomannan monoclonal antibody as the acceptor and detector antibody was designed. This immunoassay, which detects less than 1 ng of galactomannan per ml, was assessed in a retrospective study with samples from patients with invasive aspergillosis. Serum is more appropriate than urine for use in the search for ci...

Introduction. Diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis is challenging and the gold standard for definite diagnosis remains histopathological tissue examination. However, invasive procedures such as lung biopsy are often not feasible in critically ill patients. The detection of fungal cell wall components like Aspergillus galactomannan in broncho-alveolar lavage remains a key component of the diagnos...