Table of Contents
What causes false-positive beta D glucan?
False-positive BDG results have been documented in patients having undergone recent hemodialysis, those that have received certain fractionated blood products (eg, albumin, immunoglobulins), and those who have had exposure to high amounts of glucan-containing gauze during surgery.
What causes elevated beta D glucan?
Certain antibiotics have been implicated with leading to elevated beta-d-glucan levels as a result of how the antibiotics are prepared, and finally, elevated beta-d-glucan levels have been documented in bacteremic patients, and in those with severe mucositis and mucosal colonization with Candida.
What is beta D glucan test?
The concept of the (1,3)-β-d-glucan (BDG) test is highly desirable; it provides a noninvasive test method which is designed to diagnose invasive fungal infections (IFIs). As more patients experience prolonged immunocompromised periods, IFIs have become increasingly common.
What does positive beta D glucan mean?
Studies have shown that glucan levels become elevated in fungal infection in advance of conventional clinical signs and symptoms. The assay therefore has utility as an aid in the presumptive diagnosis of invasive fungal disease in at risk patients. Serum is the only specimen type cleared by the FDA for this assay.
What is invasive fungal disease?
Invasive candidiasis is an infection caused by a yeast (a type of fungus) called Candida. Unlike Candida infections in the mouth and throat (also called “thrush”) or vaginal “yeast infections,” invasive candidiasis is a serious infection that can affect the blood, heart, brain, eyes, bones, and other parts of the body.
What are the health benefits of beta glucan?
1 A polysaccharide—a large molecule made up of multiple sugar molecules—beta-glucan may offer a number of health benefits, including lowering cholesterol, improving blood sugar management, and boosting the immune system.
What is the most common opportunistic fungus?
Aspergillus is the most common opportunistic infection in patients with hematologic malignancy and bone marrow transplantation. Aspergillus spp., Candida spp., and Cryptococcus spp. are the most common fungal infections in patients with solid organ transplantation.
Why is β-D glucan testing so important?
PMID: 23850953 β-d-Glucan Testing Is Important for Diagnosis of Invasive Fungal Infections Elitza S. Theelaand Christopher D. Doernb Elitza S. Theel Division of Clinical Microbiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USAa Find articles by Elitza S. Theel Christopher D. Doern
What was the correlation coefficient for the glucan assay?
Between-run coefficients of variance (CVs) for the assay ranged from 3.2% to 16.8%; within-run CVs were ≤4.8%. The correlation coefficient for an interlaboratory reproducibility study was 0.9892.
What are the results of the fungitell assay?
The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of the Fungitell assay, by patient, for these three groups were 93.3%, 77.2%, 51.9%, and 97.8%, respectively. We also performed the Fungitell assay on sera that had been tested for Aspergillusgalactomannan or Histoplasmaantigen.
What kind of glucan is found in cryptococci?
POINT An abundant cell wall polysaccharide, (1-3)-β-d-glucan (BDG) is found in most fungi, with the notable exception of the cryptococci, the zygomycetes, and Blastomyces dermatitidis, which either lack the glucan entirely or produce it at minimal levels.