Background: Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality among patients undergoing solid organ transplantation (SOT). Because of the crude mortality of 80% to 90% in the absence of adequate treatment, timely diagnosis and early intervention with antifungal drugs are key factors in the successful treatment of IPA. Diagnosis, however, remains difficult. Therefore, new diagnostic tests are urgently needed. The Lateral-Flow Device (LFD) test is a rapid (15 min) single-sample point-of-care test that is based on the detection of an Aspergillus extracellular glycoprotein antigen by monoclonal antibody JF5.

Methods: This semiprospective multicenter study evaluated the LFD test for IPA diagnosis (established by galactomannan and culture results) by using bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples from patients after SOT. Participating centers were the three Austrian Medical Universities of Innsbruck, Vienna, and Graz.

Results: Forty-seven BAL samples from 47 SOT patients were included (26 patients had undergone lung transplantation, 13 liver, 6 kidney, and 2 heart transplantation; 11 probable or proven IPA, 11 possible IPA, 25 no IPA) at the three Austrian Medical Universities of Innsbruck, Vienna, and Graz. Sensitivity and specificity, positive and negative predictive values, as well as diagnostic odds ratio of BAL LFD tests for probable IPA were 91%, 83%, 63%, 97%, and 50% (95% confidence interval, 5.4%-467%), respectively.

Conclusion: To conclude, the LFD test of BAL specimens is performed easily and provides accurate and rapidly available results in patients after SOT. Therefore, this new point-of-care test may be a promising diagnostic approach for detecting IPA using BAL specimens from SOT patients.