title: Retrospective assessment of β-D-(1,3)-glucan for presumptive diagnosis of fungal infections.
abstract: β-D-(1,3)-glucan (BG) is a component of the cell walls of many fungal organisms. Our aims were to investigate the feasibility of the BG assay and its contribution to early diagnosis of different types of invasive fungal infections (IFI) commonly diagnosed in a tertiary care centre. The BG serum levels of 28 patients diagnosed with six IFI [13 probable invasive aspergillosis (IA), 2 proven IA, 2 zygomycosis, 3 fusariosis, 3 cryptococcosis, 3 candidaemia and 2 pneumocystosis] were retrospectively evaluated. The kinetic variations in BG serum levels from the 15 patients diagnosed with IA were compared with those of the galactomannan antigen (GM). In 5/15 cases of IA, BG was positive earlier than GM (time lapse from 4 to 30 days), in 8/15 cases, BG was positive at the same time as GM and, in 2/15 cases, BG was positive after GM. For the five other fungal diseases, BG was highly positive at the period of diagnosis except for the two cases of zygomycosis and one of the three cases of fusariosis. This study, which reflects the common activity of a tertiary care centre, confirms that BG detection could be of interest for IFI screening in patients with haematological malignancies.
authors.affiliation: University Franche-Comte, University Hospital of Besançon, France. apbellanger@chu-besancon.fr
authors.forename: Anne-Pauline
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Bellanger
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Grenouillet
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Henon
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Skana
authors.forename: Faezeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Legrand
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Deconinck
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Millon
mesh_terms: D001228:Aspergillosis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D005602:France; D005690:Galactose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D008351:Mannans / Q000097:blood; D009181:Mycoses / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011509:Proteoglycans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D047071:beta-Glucans / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D008351:Mannans; D011509:Proteoglycans; D047071:beta-Glucans; C012990:galactomannan; C010770:polysaccharide-K; D005690:Galactose