ArticleJournal of clinical microbiology2015
Clinical Performance of Aspergillus PCR for Testing Serum and Plasma: a Study by the European Aspergillus PCR Initiative.
Article in Journal of clinical microbiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 130 citations in OpenAlex.
- Aspergillus fumigatus-a systematic review to inform the World Health Organization priority list of fungal pathogens.Medical mycology · 2024Pooled it
- Genetic Detection ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Failure in Invasive Fungal Infections: Causes, Clinical Consequences, and Mitigation Strategies.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Non-invasive diagnosis of invasive fungal disease with cell-free DNA PCR.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2026Review
- Biomarkers in Invasive Pulmonary Fungal Infections: Where Do We Stand?Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- A fully integrated sample-to-answer molecular diagnostic platform for rapid identification of four majorFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- HTS and PCR Methods Are the Most Used in the Diagnosis of Aspergillosis: Advantages over Other Molecular Methods.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The Molecular Diagnosis of Invasive Fungal Diseases with a Focus on PCR.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Interlaboratory assays from the fungal PCR Initiative and the Modimucor Study Group to improve qPCR detection of Mucorales DNA in serum: one more step toward standardization.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2025Article
- Invasive Fungal Disease After Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T Immunotherapy in Adult and Pediatric Patients.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Subacute invasive pulmonary aspergillosis following breast cancer treatment: A one-year diagnostic odyssey.IDCases · 2025Article
- Breaking the mould: challenging the status quo of clinical trial response definitions for invasive fungal diseases-a debate.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2024Article
- Dynamics and prognostic value of plasma cell-free DNA PCR in patients with invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2024Article
- Nucleic-Acid-Based Molecular Fungal Diagnostics: A Way to a Better Future.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- An Overview of Systematic Reviews of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for the Diagnosis of Invasive Aspergillosis in Immunocompromised People: A Report of the Fungal PCR Initiative (FPCRI)-An ISHAM Working Group.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Current and Future Pathways inAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Performance of the JF5-Based Galactomannoprotein EIA Compared to the Lateral Flow Device and the Galactomannan EIA in Serum and Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2022Article
- Analytical Performance of the Commercial MucorGeniusJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Atypical pathogens presenting with pulmonary consolidations detected by cell-free DNA next-generation sequencing in patients with hematologic malignancies.Infectious diseases in clinical practice (Baltimore, Md.) · 2022Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 10 institutions in 9 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Aspergillus PCR testing of serum provides technical simplicity but with potentially reduced sensitivity compared to whole-blood testing. With diseases for which screening to exclude disease represents an optimal strategy, sensitivity is paramount. The associated analytical study confirmed that DNA concentrations were greater in plasma than those in serum. The aim of the current investigation was to confirm analytical findings by comparing the performance of Aspergillus PCR testing of plasma and serum in the clinical setting. Standardized Aspergillus PCR was performed on plasma and serum samples concurrently obtained from hematology patients in a multicenter retrospective anonymous case-control study, with cases diagnosed according to European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer/Invasive Fungal Infections Cooperative Group and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Mycoses Study Group (EORTC/MSG) consensus definitions (19 proven/probable cases and 42 controls). Clinical performance and clinical utility (time to positivity) were calculated for both kinds of samples. The sensitivity and specificity for Aspergillus PCR when testing serum were 68.4% and 76.2%, respectively, and for plasma, they were 94.7% and 83.3%, respectively. Eighty-five percent of serum and plasma PCR results were concordant. On average, plasma PCR was positive 16.8 days before diagnosis and was the earliest indicator of infection in 13 cases, combined with other biomarkers in five cases. On average, serum PCR was positive 10.8 days before diagnosis and was the earliest indicator of infection in six cases, combined with other biomarkers in three cases. These results confirm the analytical finding that the sensitivity of Aspergillus PCR using plasma is superior to that using serum. PCR positivity occurs earlier when testing plasma and provides sufficient sensitivity for the screening of invasive aspergillosis while maintaining methodological simplicity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.