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Molecular surveillance of hematopoietic chimerism is an important part of the routine diagnostic program in patients after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Chimerism testing permits early prediction and documentation of successful engraftment and facilitates early risk assessment of impending graft rejection. In patients transplanted for treatment of malignant hematologic disorders, monitoring of chimerism can provide an early indication of incipient disease relapse. The investigation of chimerism has therefore become an indispensable tool for the management of patients during the post-transplant period. Increasing use of reduced-intensity conditioning, which is associated with prolonged duration of mixed hematopoietic chimerism, has further increased the clinical importance of chimerism analysis. At present, the most commonly used technical approach to the investigation of chimerism is microsatellite analysis by polymerase chain reaction. The investigation of chimerism within specific leukocyte subsets isolated from peripheral blood or bone marrow samples by flow sorting- or magnetic bead-based techniques provides more specific information on processes underlying the dynamics of donor/recipient chimerism. Moreover, cell subset-specific analysis permits the assessment of impending complications at a significantly higher sensitivity, thus providing a basis for earlier treatment decisions.

Invasive fungal infections (IFI) are a common cause of life-threatening events in immunocompromised patients. Early detection and identification of the fungal pathogen is an important prerequisite for timely onset of the most appropriate treatment. Methods based on fungal culture are often too slow to be clinically useful. Other approaches to the identification of fungal species, including molecular techniques, are often restricted to a small number of the most commonly occurring pathogens and are therefore of limited use in the clinical setting. The development of assays for the detection and identification of a broad-range of clinically relevant fungal species is therefore an urgently needed step towards optimized diagnostics of IFI.The Luminex(®) xMAP technology offers a platform for the establishment of multiplex assays permitting high-throughput analysis of up to 100 different target molecules in a single test. Here we describe a Luminex(®)-based multiplex assay permitting rapid detection and identification of 10 fungal genera and 29 different species, including both commonly occurring and emerging fungal pathogens.