Postmortem analysis of invasive aspergillosis in a tertiary care hospital

To estimate the incidence of fatal invasive aspergillosis in a 1500-bed tertiary-care hospital and to investigate the utility of laboratory diagnostic approaches, necropsy protocols and microbiological data from 1994 and 1995 were reviewed. Among 694 necropsies from 1693 patients who died in these t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases 1997, Vol.16 (1), p.1-6
Main Authors: VOGESER, M, HAAS, A, AUST, D, RUCKDESCHEL, G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aspergillosis - diagnosis
Aspergillosis - epidemiology
Aspergillus
Autopsy
Biological and medical sciences
Bone marrow
Female
Germany
Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over
Hospitals, University
Human mycoses
Humans
Immunocompromised Host
Infectious diseases
Latex Fixation Tests
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Mycoses
Mycoses of the respiratory system
Organ Transplantation
Retrospective Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:To estimate the incidence of fatal invasive aspergillosis in a 1500-bed tertiary-care hospital and to investigate the utility of laboratory diagnostic approaches, necropsy protocols and microbiological data from 1994 and 1995 were reviewed. Among 694 necropsies from 1693 patients who died in these two years, 27 (4%) cases of invasive aspergillosis were identified. Twelve cases of invasive aspergillosis were found after transplantation of solid organs, three after bone marrow transplantation, four in patients with haematological malignancies, and five in patients with solid tumours. In 15 cases (56%) invasive aspergillosis was not suspected before death. In patients in whom serum sampling was performed seven days antemortem, the Aspergillus latex agglutination test had a sensitivity of 53% (9/17). Culture of tracheal secretions or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with pulmonary aspergillosis yielded Aspergillus fumigatus in 88% (14/16).
ISSN:0934-9723
1435-4373
DOI:10.1007/BF01575110