ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2019
Clinical Performance of (1,3) Beta-D Glucan for the Diagnosis of Pneumocystis Pneumonia (PCP) in Cancer Patients Tested With PCP Polymerase Chain Reaction.
Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 93 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnostic tests performance in detecting Pneumocystis jirovecii: A systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Polymerase Chain Reaction on Respiratory Tract Specimens of Immunocompromised Patients to Diagnose Pneumocystis Pneumonia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2024Pooled it
- Computed tomography-based radiomics improves non-invasive diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in non-HIV patients: a retrospective study.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2024Trial
- The Role of 1-3-Beta-D-Glucan in Predicting Pneumocystis jirovecii Pneumonia in Immunocompromised Children.Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society · 2026Article
- Advances in the Diagnosis of Invasive Pulmonary Mold Infections: Focus on Diagnostic Performance and Cost-Effectiveness of Diagnostic Tests.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Development and Validation of a Machine Learning-Based Nomogram for Predicting Severe Pneumocystis jirovecii Pneumonia in Kidney Transplant Recipients.Annals of transplantation · 2026Article
- Biomarkers in Invasive Pulmonary Fungal Infections: Where Do We Stand?Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Neutrophil CD64 index for rapid diagnosis ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Advances in pathogen detection ofInfectious medicine · 2025Review
- Clinical analysis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in children with malignant disease.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- The Molecular Diagnosis of Invasive Fungal Diseases with a Focus on PCR.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Evaluation of Serum Biomarkers for Improved Diagnosis of Candidemia.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- An overview of the laboratory diagnosis ofJournal of clinical microbiology · 2025Review
- Fungal lung disease.The European respiratory journal · 2024Review
- Diagnostic Value of Serum Biomarkers for Invasive Aspergillosis in Haematologic Patients.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Identifying optimal serum 1,3-β-D-Glucan cut-off for diagnosing Pneumocystis Jirovecii Pneumonia in non-HIV patients in the intensive care unit.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Colorimetric sensing for translational applications: from colorants to mechanisms.Chemical Society reviews · 2024Review
- Biomarkers in pulmonary infections: a clinical approach.Annals of intensive care · 2024Review
- Candent issues in pneumonia. Reflections from the Fifth Annual Meeting of Spanish Experts 2023.Revista espanola de quimioterapia : publicacion oficial de la Sociedad Espanola de Quimioterapia · 2024Review
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Abstract
backgroundSerum (1,3)-beta-D glucan (BDG) is increasingly used to guide the management of suspected Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP). BDG lacks specificity for PCP, and its clinical performance in high-risk cancer patients has not been fully assessed. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for PCP detection is highly sensitive, but cannot differentiate between colonization and infection. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of serum BDG in conjunction with PCP PCR on respiratory samples in patients with cancer and unexplained lung infiltrates.
methodsWe performed a retrospective analysis of adult patients evaluated for PCP at our institution from 2012 to 2015, using serum BDG and PCP PCR. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of the serum BDG at different thresholds were evaluated using PCP PCR alone or in conjunction with clinical presentation in PCP PCR-positive patients.
resultsWith PCP PCR alone as the reference method, BDG (≥80 pg/mL) had a sensitivity of 69.8%, specificity of 81.2%, PPV of 34.6%, and NPV of 95.2% for PCP. At ≥200 pg/mL in patients with a positive PCR and a compatible PCP clinical syndrome, BDG had a sensitivity of 70%, specificity of 100%, PPV of 100%, and NPV of 52.0% for PCP.
conclusionsPatients negative by both BDG and PCR were unlikely to have PCP. In patients with a compatible clinical syndrome for PCP, higher BDG values (>200 pg/mL) were consistently associated with clinically-significant PCP infections among PCP PCR-positive oncology patients.
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