• Jiwon Jung, Mi Young Kim, Yong Pil Chong, Sang-Oh Lee, Sang-Ho Choi, Yang Soo Kim, Jun Hee Woo, and Sung-Han Kim.
• Department of Infectious Diseases, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Ulsan University Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Ulsan, Republic of Korea.
• J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2018 Dec 1; 51 (6): 802-809.

BackgroundThe sensitivity of galactomannan (GM) assay is suboptimal for detecting invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in serum samples. However, the clinical characteristics, radiologic findings, and outcomes in patients with GM-negative IPA have not been fully elucidated.MethodsOver a 7-year period, adult patients with proven or probable IPA by the EORTC/MSG definition were retrospectively enrolled. Patients with negative GM results and positive Aspergillus spp. cultures from sputum or bronchoalveolar lavage were classified into GM-negative IPA group. GM-positive and culture-negative IPA cases were selected at a 1:2 ratio.ResultsThirty-four patients with GM-negative IPA were compared to 68 randomly selected patients from 158 patients with GM-positive and culture-negative IPA. Patients with diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and steroid use were more common but those with hematologic malignancy, prior receipt of mold-active antifungal drugs, and neutropenia were less common in GM-negative IPA than in GM-positive IPA. Regarding radiologic findings, angioinvasive aspergillosis was less common in GM-negative IPA than in GM-positive IPA. The median number of days from diagnosis to appropriate antifungal therapy was higher in GM-negative IPA than in GM-positive IPA. Multivariate analysis indicated that neutropenia (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.10) and prior receipt of mold-active antifungal drugs (aOR, 0.12) were inversely associated with GM-negative IPA. The 30-day and 90-day mortality were similar between the two groups.ConclusionNeutropenia and prior receipt of mold-active antifungal drugs before GM assay were independently associated with GM positivity among patients with proven/probable IPA. Angioinvasive aspergillosis was less common in GM-negative IPA than in GM-positive IPA.Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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