Polymerase Chain Reaction—Based Assays for the Diagnosis of Invasive Fungal Infections

Currently accepted fungal diagnostic techniques, such as culture, biopsy, and serology, lack rapidity and efficiency. Newer diagnostic methods, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR)—based assays, have the potential to improve fungal diagnostics in a faster, more sensitive, and specific manner. Pre...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical infectious diseases 2012-05, Vol.54 (9), p.1322-1331
Main Authors: Kourkoumpetis, Themistoklis K., Fuchs, Beth Burgwyn, Coleman, Jeffrey J., Desalermos, Athanasios, Mylonakis, Eleftherios
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antifungal Agents - therapeutic use
Antifungals
Antiviral drugs
Aspergillosis
Aspergillus
Biological and medical sciences
Blood
Candidemia
Decision making
DNA
DNA, Fungal - genetics
Drug Resistance, Fungal - genetics
Fungal infections
Fungi
Fungi - genetics
Humans
Infectious diseases
Medical sciences
Mycology
Mycoses - diagnosis
Mycoses - drug therapy
Polymerase chain reaction
Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods
Polymerase Chain Reaction - standards
Product category rules
Review
REVIEW ARTICLE
Sensitivity and Specificity
Toxicity
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:Currently accepted fungal diagnostic techniques, such as culture, biopsy, and serology, lack rapidity and efficiency. Newer diagnostic methods, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR)—based assays, have the potential to improve fungal diagnostics in a faster, more sensitive, and specific manner. Preliminary data indicate that, when PCR-based fungal diagnostic assays guide antifungal therapy, they may lower patient mortality and decrease unnecessary antifungal treatment, improving treatment-associated costs and avoiding toxicity. Moreover, newer PCR techniques can identify antifungal resistance DNA loci, but the clinical correlation between those loci and clinical failure has to be studied further. In addition, future studies need to focus on the implementation of PCR techniques in clinical decision making and on combining them with other diagnostic tests. A consensus on the standardization of PCR techniques, along with validation from large prospective studies, is necessary to allow widespread adoption of these assays.
ISSN:1058-4838
1537-6591
DOI:10.1093/cid/cis132