1. Tendency in Pulmonary Aspergillosis Investigation during the COVID-19 Era: What Is Changing?
- Author
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Caggiano G, Apollonio F, Consiglio M, Gasparre V, Trerotoli P, Diella G, Lopuzzo M, Triggiano F, Stolfa S, Mosca A, and Montagna MT
- Subjects
- Aspergillus, Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid, Humans, Sensitivity and Specificity, COVID-19 epidemiology, Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis complications, Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis diagnosis, Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis epidemiology, Pulmonary Aspergillosis complications, Pulmonary Aspergillosis diagnosis, Pulmonary Aspergillosis epidemiology
- Abstract
Aspergillosis is a disease caused by Aspergillus , and invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is the most common invasive fungal infection leading to death in severely immuno-compromised patients. The literature reports Aspergillus co-infections in patients with COVID-19 (CAPA). Diagnosing CAPA clinically is complex since the symptoms are non-specific, and performing a bronchoscopy is difficult. Generally, the microbiological diagnosis of aspergillosis is based on cultural methods and on searching for the circulating antigens galactomannan and 1,3-β-D-glucan in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (bGM) or serum (sGM). In this study, to verify whether the COVID-19 period has stimulated clinicians to pay greater attention to IPA in patients with respiratory tract infections, we evaluated the number of requests for GM-Ag research and the number of positive tests found during the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods. Our data show a significant upward trend in GM-Ag requests and positivity from the pre-COVID to COVID period, which is attributable in particular to the increase in IPA risk factors as a complication of COVID-19. In the COVID period, parallel to the increase in requests, the number of positive tests for GM-Ag also increased, going from 2.5% in the first period of 2020 to 12.3% in the first period of 2021.
- Published
- 2022
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