Fungal Infection among Patients with Some Hematopoietic Disorders

With the increasing number of immune compromised patients suffering from hematological disorders, invasive fungal infections have emerged as a major cause of morbidity and mortality among these patients. This study evaluated the use of conventional blood culture and PCR techniques in the isolation and identification of fungi from patients with different hematopoietic disorders. Ninety blood samples were tested by both techniques, conventional blood culture detected fungal infections in only five (5.6%) samples, which were further identified to be of Candida spp. While PCR technique detected fungal infections in 56 (62.2%) samples, which were further subjected to nested PCR technique giving final identification of Candida spp. infections in 36 (40%) samples and Aspergillus spp. in 16 (17.8) samples. The sensitivity of PCR technique was 100% and the specificity ranged from 40% to 100%. Thus, the use of nested PCR technique was an efficient and sensitive method for detection of invasive fungal infections among patients with hematopoietic disorders.