title: The current management landscape: aspergillosis.
abstract: Diagnosing invasive aspergillosis (IA) has long been challenging due to the inability to culture the causal Aspergillus agent from blood or other body fluids. This shortcoming has fuelled an interest in non-culture-based diagnostic techniques such as the detection of galactomannan (GM) in blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, the detection of 1,3-β-d-glucan (BDG) in blood and the detection of Aspergillus DNA by PCR-based techniques. Past decades have witnessed important improvements in our understanding of the strengths and limitations of antigen assays and in the standardization of PCR-based DNA techniques. These assays are now being incorporated into care pathways and diagnostic algorithms; they help us to steward and monitor antifungal therapies and to predict treatment outcomes.
authors.affiliation: University Hospitals Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium johan.maertens@uzleuven.be.
authors.forename: Johan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Maertens
authors.affiliation: Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, and Department of Infectious Diseases, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ola
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Blennow
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Rafael F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Duarte
authors.affiliation: Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Division, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain.|Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Hospital Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain.|CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias-CIBERES (CB06/06/0058), Madrid, Spain.|Medicine Department, School of Medicine, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Muñoz
mesh_terms: D001230:Aspergillus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001992:Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / Q000737:chemistry; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000097:blood; D005690:Galactose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D006801:Humans; D007153:Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D055744:Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology; D008351:Mannans / Q000097:blood; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D047071:beta-Glucans / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D008351:Mannans; D047071:beta-Glucans; C012990:galactomannan; C033363:beta-1,3-glucan; D005690:Galactose