Related Experiment Videos
Pulmonary fungal infections
Fernanda Silveira1, David L Paterson
1Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine
|April 9, 2005
Summary
Recent advances in diagnosing and managing invasive pulmonary aspergillosis offer hope for improving outcomes in immunocompromised patients. Further multicenter trials are needed to optimize treatment strategies for these challenging fungal infections.
Area of Science:
- Medical Mycology
- Infectious Diseases
- Pulmonology
Background:
- Invasive fungal infections of the lung carry a high mortality rate.
- The population of immunosuppressed individuals, including transplant recipients, is expanding.
- Aggressive immunosuppression in transplant recipients increases the risk of invasive fungal infections.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent advancements in the diagnosis of fungal lung infections.
- To disseminate updated management strategies for pulmonary fungal infections.
Main Methods:
- Review of current literature on fungal lung infections.
- Analysis of diagnostic markers such as galactomannan and beta-D-glucan.
- Evaluation of evidence supporting combination antifungal therapy.
Main Results:
- Galactomannan and beta-D-glucan tests show utility in monitoring neutropenic patients for invasive aspergillosis.
- The utility of these tests is not yet established in solid organ transplant recipients.
- In vitro, animal, and retrospective human studies support combination antifungal therapy for invasive aspergillosis, though randomized trials are lacking.
Conclusions:
- Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis remains a significant threat to immunocompromised patients.
- Recent diagnostic and therapeutic advances are expected to improve patient outcomes.
- Further well-designed multicenter studies are essential to optimize management strategies.