title: Point of Care Testing for the Diagnosis of Fungal Infections: Are We There Yet?
abstract: Diagnostic tools for invasive fungal infections have continuously improved within the last decades. Nowadays, cultural methods, antigen testing, and molecular tests, such as polymerase chain reaction, are widely used. These methods, however, are accompanied with different limitations as various availability, various turnaround time or high costs. A new generation of point-of-care test has shown promising results in various studies and may overcome some of these limitations. We therefore reviewed the literature for the most promising new point-of-care tests for invasive aspergillosis (Aspergillus-specific lateral-flow device test,Aspergillusproximity ligation antigen assay), cryptococcosis (cryptococcal lateral-flow assay), and for histoplasmosis (loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay).
authors.affiliation: Section of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 15, 8036 Graz, Austria ; CBmed - Center for Biomarker Research in Medicine, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Juergen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prattes
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heldt
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eigl
authors.affiliation: Section of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 15, 8036 Graz, Austria ; CBmed - Center for Biomarker Research in Medicine, Graz, Austria ; Division of Pulmonology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria ; Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA USA.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoenigl
keywords: Aspergillus; Cryptococcus; Diagnosis; Diagnostic tools; Fungal infections; Histoplasma; Invasive fungal infections; Lateral-flow device; Point-of-care; Review