Exhalation Air Fungal Culture of Mechanically Ventilated Aspergillosis Suspected Patients in Concordance with Other Conventional Diagnostic Techniques

摘要

Aspergillosis remains one of the most challenging areas of illness. It has recently emerged as a world-wide healthcare problem, owing to extensive use of broad spectrum antibiotics, immunosuppressive agents and increasingpopulation of terminally ill and debilitated patients. The ultimate aim of this investigation is to minimize morbidity andmortality of mechanically ventilated aspergillosis suspected patients, who have been notoriously difficult to bediagnosed and treated, by developing an accurate and easy diagnostic tool comparable to other conventionalmethods. Two hundred twenty seven suspected aspergillosis patients were screened for fungal infection usingdifferent conventional tools to evaluate different respiratory specimens sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage, plural fluid,blood, biopsy and ELISA technique for galactomannan and (1-3)-β-D-glucan antigens in serum and bronchoalveolarlavage. Four Aspergillus species (A. niger, A. fumigatus, A. flavus and A. terreus) were isolated and identifiedmorphologically and genetically using the conventional diagnostic tools from suspected patients in all positivecultures. The results of the exhalation air of twenty three mechanically ventilated aspergillosis suspected patientscame in accordance with those of the conventional methods used. Thus, exhalation air culture is an easilyperformed bedside tool for diagnosis of aspergillosis in ventilated patients.