Objective: To evaluate the clinical value of serum 1,3-beta-D-glucan (BG) and galactomannan (GM) detection for early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis (IA) in patients after renal transplantation.
Methods: Blood samples collected from 69 renal transplant recipients were divided into diagnosis group, clinical diagnosis group, suspected diagnosis group, and non-infected group for detection of serum BG and GM.
Results: The mean serum levels of BG in the diagnosis group, clinical diagnosis group, and suspected diagnosis group were significantly higher than that in non-infected group (P<0.05). The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of BG was 69.49%, 70%, 93.18% and 35.71% for IA diagnosis, respectively. The serum levels of GM in the 3 diagnosis groups were also significantly higher than that in the non-infected group (P<0.05) with the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of 84.75%, 90%, 96.15% and 52.63% for IA diagnosis, respectively.
Conclusion: Increased serum BG and GM levels can serve as the evidence for early diagnosis of IA with a high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity in renal transplant recipients.