New LFD for Diagnosis of invasive Aspergillosis

A study recently published in Mycoses http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/myc.12704/abstract;jsessionid=5702E966D611F441C01C7D3F6EC49508.f02t01 evaluated for the first time the newly formatted Aspergillus-specific lateral-flow-device (LFD), which has been formatted for large-scale manufacture and CE marking as an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) device and is expected to be on the market by the end of the year. The study compare the performance of the newly formatted test and compared its performance to the original prototype “old” LFD test using BALF samples from 28 patients (14 patients with probable/proven invasive pulmonary aspergillosis [IPA] and 14 patients with no evidence for IPA). The study found that the new LFD when used with BALF samples was

equally sensitive but more specific than the old LFD, for which an overall sensitivity of 73% and specificity of 90% has been published. The results indicate that the newly formatted LFD may contribute to timely clinical decision making regarding initiation and choice of antifungal treatment, but a negative result may not be enough to rule out IPA, especially in oatients receiving mould-active prophylaxis.