Utility of serum Galactomannan in diagnosing COVID-19 patients with suspected IPA: an observational study in resource limited settings

S. Das, C. Gupta, C. Jain, G. Rai, M.A.A. Alqumber, P.K. Singh, R. Sharma, A. Tyagi, R. Salhotra, S. Narang, N.P. Singh, S.A. Dar

Department of Microbiology, University College of Medical Sciences and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Delhi, India. shukladas_123@yahoo.com

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• Infectious Diseases

OBJECTIVE: To study the utility of Galactomannan (GM) antigen as a screening marker for diagnosing invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The serum samples from patients with severe COVID-19 diseases admitted to the Critical Care Unit were collected on the 5th day of admission for GM screening. The samples were analysed by enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) and GM index of more than 1 was considered as positive. All GM positive patients were serially followed until discharge or death.

RESULTS: The GM was raised in serum of 12 out of 38 patients, indicating an incidence of possible COVID-19 associated IPA (CAPA) in 31.57% of patients. The median age of these CAPA patients was 56.5 years, males were significantly more affected than females. The inflammatory marker serum ferritin was raised in all 12 patients (median value of 713.74 ng/ml), while IL-6 was raised in 9 patients (median value of 54.13 ng/ml). None of these patients received antifungals. Their median length of hospital stay was 20 days (IQR: 12, 34 days). All these patients succumbed to the illness.

CONCLUSIONS: The serum GM appears to be sensitive diagnostic tool to identify early IPA in COVID-19 patients and pre-emptive antifungal therapy could play a role in salvaging these patients.

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