Laboratory diagnostics of invasive fungal infections: an overview with emphasis on molecular approach

Although invasive fungal diseases (IFDs) are relatively rare, they have become an increasingly common life-threatening complication in a variety of critically ill patients. Due to changes in treatment strategies, patterns of IFDs have changed substantially as well. Yeast infections have shifted toward a higher proportion of non-albicans Candida species, but their overall incidence has remained stable. In contrast, IFDs caused by molds, including particularly various species of Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Mucorales, have increased in number. In view of the growing incidence and the high mortality rates of IFDs, accurate diagnostic techniques permitting timely onset of adequate antifungal treatment are of paramount importance. Although conventional approaches such as microscopy, cultivation, histopathological examination, and imaging methods still represent the gold standard, the diagnosis remains difficult because of limited sensitivity and specificity. Noninvasive and culture-independent diagnostic techniques, including fungal antigen detection, and different molecular-based techniques are becoming increasingly important. Of the fungal surrogate markers such as cell wall components, galactomannan and (1,3)-β-D-glucan by commercially available diagnostic kits have become widely used, but the results are still controversial. A plethora of PCR-based diagnostic methods targeting different gene regions and exploiting a variety of amplicon detection tools have been published. Molecular assays have the capacity to overcome the limitations of other diagnostic approaches, but the current lack of methodological standardization and validation, together with not always clear interpretation of the results, has prevented broad application in the clinical setting.