Performance of serum galactomannan in patients with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis.

Few studies have evaluated the performance of serum galactomannan (GM) in patients with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis ( ABPA). Herein, we analyse the diagnostic performance of serum GM in ABPA. Consecutive subjects with ABPA and asthma underwent GM estimation using the Platelia assay (Bio-Rad Laboratories). An optical density index of >0.5 was considered positive. One hundred and twenty subjects (70 ABPA, 50 asthma) with a mean ( SD) age of 33.0 (13.1) were included in the study. The serum GM antigen was positive in 18 (25.7%) subjects with ABPA compared to 9 (18%) subjects with asthma without ABPA ( P = 0.32). The sensitivity of the serum GM antigen test in patients with ABPA was 25.7% [95% confidence intervals ( CI), 16-38] while the specificity was 82% (95% CI, 69-91). The positive and negative predictive values were 66.7% (95% CI, 46-84%) and 44.1% (95% CI, 34-55), respectively. The area under the ROC curve was 0.54 (95% CI, 0.44-0.64). The sensitivity increased and the specificity decreased with decreasing the serum GM cutoff, and vice versa. The results of this study suggest that serum GM estimation has a limited role in the diagnostic workup of patients with ABPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]