The risk of transmission of infectious diseases from allograft to recipient is well known. Viruses and bacteria are the most frequent causes of transmissible infections. Donor-derived invasive ...aspergillosis is rare and occurred under particular circumstances. We report 2 cases of kidney transplant recipients who acquired aspergillosis from a single donor.
This multicenter study evaluated the IMMY Aspergillus Galactomannan Lateral Flow Assay (LFA) with automated reader for diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis in patients with COVID-19-associated acute ...respiratory failure (ARF) requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission between 03/2020 and 04/2021. A total of 196 respiratory samples and 148 serum samples (
= 344) from 238 patients were retrospectively included, with a maximum of one of each sample type per patient. Cases were retrospectively classified for COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) status following the 2020 consensus criteria, with the exclusion of LFA results as a mycological criterion. At the 1.0 cutoff, sensitivity of LFA for CAPA (proven/probable/possible) was 52%, 80% and 81%, and specificity was 98%, 88% and 67%, for bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), nondirected bronchoalveolar lavage (NBL), and tracheal aspiration (TA), respectively. At the 0.5 manufacturer's cutoff, sensitivity was 72%, 90% and 100%, and specificity was 79%, 83% and 44%, for BALF, NBL and TA, respectively. When combining all respiratory samples, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area under the curve (AUC) was 0.823, versus 0.754, 0.890 and 0.814 for BALF, NBL and TA, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity of serum LFA were 20% and 93%, respectively, at the 0.5 ODI cutoff. Overall, the Aspergillus Galactomannan LFA showed good performances for CAPA diagnosis, when used from respiratory samples at the 1.0 cutoff, while sensitivity from serum was limited, linked to weak invasiveness during CAPA. As some false-positive results can occur, isolated results slightly above the recommended cutoff should lead to further mycological investigations.
Parasitic infections are an uncommon but potentially severe complication in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. An increase in donors who have emigrated from tropical areas and more transplant ...recipients traveling to endemic areas have led to a rise in parasitic infections reported among SOT recipients. Clinicians should include these infections in their differential diagnosis and promote adherence to preventive measures in SOT recipients.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) -associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) has emerged as a complication in critically ill COVID-19 patients. The objectives of this multinational study were to ...determine the prevalence of CAPA in patients with COVID-19 in intensive care units (ICU) and to investigate risk factors for CAPA as well as outcome.
The European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) conducted a multinational study including 20 centres from nine countries to assess epidemiology, risk factors and outcome of CAPA. CAPA was defined according to the 2020 ECMM/ISHAM consensus definitions.
A total of 592 patients were included in this study, including 11 (1.9%) patients with histologically proven CAPA, 80 (13.5%) with probable CAPA, 18 (3%) with possible CAPA and 483 (81.6%) without CAPA. CAPA was diagnosed a median of 8 days (range 0–31 days) after ICU admission predominantly in older patients (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.04 per year; 95% CI 1.02–1.06) with any form of invasive respiratory support (HR 3.4; 95% CI 1.84–6.25) and receiving tocilizumab (HR 2.45; 95% CI 1.41–4.25). Median prevalence of CAPA per centre was 10.7% (range 1.7%–26.8%). CAPA was associated with significantly lower 90-day ICU survival rate (29% in patients with CAPA versus 57% in patients without CAPA; Mantel–Byar p < 0.001) and remained an independent negative prognostic variable after adjusting for other predictors of survival (HR 2.14; 95% CI 1.59–2.87, p ≤ 0.001).
Prevalence of CAPA varied between centres. CAPA was significantly more prevalent among older patients, patients receiving invasive ventilation and patients receiving tocilizumab, and was an independent strong predictor of ICU mortality.