Galactomannan testing of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid is useful for diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in hematology patients

Table 1 Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of the study subjects.

	Cases (n = 10)	Control 1^a (n = 17)	Control 2^b (n = 35)
Median Age, years (Range)	35 (9 - 89)	43 (19 - 75)	63 (28 - 81)
Male gender (%)	8 (80.0)	13 (76.5)	24 (68.6)
Allogenic stem-cell transplantation (%)	2 (20.0)	8 (47.1)	0 (0.0)
Neutropenia (%) ^c	9 (90.0)	11 (64.7)	0 (0.0)
Serum galactomannan testing:
- Number tested (%)	10 (100.0)	11 (64.7)	1 (2.9)
- Median OD index (range)^d	0.3 (0.1 - 1.8)	0.1 (0.0 - 0.2)	0.2
BAL galactomannan testing:
- Median OD index (range)	4.1 (1.1 - 7.7)	0.2 (0.1 - 1.0)	0.4 (0.1 - 1.1)
- OD index ≥ 0.5 (%)	10 (100)	3 (17.6)	11 (31.4)
BAL fungal cultures (%):	10 (100)	17 (100)	18 (51.4)
- Candida spp. (%)	1 (10.0)	6 (35.3)	6 (33.3)
- Aspergillus spp. (%)	1 (10.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)
Primary pulmonary diagnoses:
- IPA (%)	10 (100.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)
- Bacterial pneumonia (%)	0 (0.0)	4 (23.5)	14 (40.0)
- Lung cancer (%)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	12 (34.3)
- Graft vs. host disease (%)	0 (0.0)	5 (29.4)	0 (0.0)
- Viral pneumonitis (%)	0 (0.0)	2 (11.8)	0 (0.0)
- Interstitial lung disease (%)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	3 (8.6)
- Others (%)	0 (0.0)	6 (35.3)	6 (17.1)

^a Controls with underlying hematological diseases meeting EORTC/MSG host factors criteria for invasive fungal disease [3].
^b Controls with no underlying hematological diseases.
^c Absolute neutrophil count < 500/mm³
^d Highest serum galactomannan OD index within two weeks of bronchoscopy, if test was performed.

ISSN: 1471-2334