ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Infectious Diseases
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1599425
Evaluation of a novel Aspergillus IgG lateral flow assay for the diagnosis of non-neutropenic patients with acute and subacute invasive aspergillosis
Provisionally accepted- 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, China
- 2Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Liaoning Province, China
- 3Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Nanjing Jinling Hospital, Medical School, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
- 4Department of Orthopedics, Nanjing Jinling Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Liaoning Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study aimed to assess a novel lateral flow assay (LFA) for Aspergillus IgG detection in patients with non-neutropenic invasive aspergillosis (IA) .Methods: Aspergillus IgG LFA and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were performed in non-neutropenic IA patients and control group (proven community acquired pneumonia and healthy persons), respectively. The diagnostic performance of Aspergillus IgG LFA for IA was evaluated and compared with ELISA method.Results:33 cases of acute IA, 30 cases of subacute IA and 80 controls were enrolled in this study. The level of plasma Aspergillus IgG LFA in the IA group was significantly higher than that in the control group (190.5 AU/mL vs. 50.3 AU/mL, P < 0.001). In total, the sensitivity/specificity/PPV/NPV of Aspergillus IgG LFA was 65.1%/97.5%/95.4%/78.0%. The sensitivity and specificity of Aspergillus IgG LFA were equivalent to those of Aspergillus IgG ELISA with a 120 AU/mL cut-off, but exhibited significantly higher specificity (97.5% vs. 87.5%, P = 0.021) compared to the ELISA with an 80 AU/mL cut-off. The consistency was strong among the two methods (P < 0.001, Kappa = 0.67/0.68). The sensitivities/specificities/PPVs/NPVs of Aspergillus IgG LFA were 57.6%/97.5%/90.5%/84.8% for patients with acute IA, and 73.3%/97.5%/91.7%/90.7% for patients with subacute IA, respectively. The "any-positive" strategy, which combined Aspergillus IgG LFA with sputum culture and serum GM, had a sensitivity/specificity/PPV/NPV of 81.1%/94.7%/95.6%/78.3%. The sensitivity/specificity/PPV/NPV of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) galactomannan (GM) was 65.0%/90.0%/92.9%/56.3%. When combined Aspergillus IgG LFA with BALF GM, the figures were 87.5%/85.0%/92.1%/77.3%. Conclusions: Compared to the Aspergillus IgG ELISA, the Aspergillus IgG LFA exhibits comparable or superior diagnostic efficiency in IA patients, while offering a faster and more convenient option for clinical diagnosis. The "any-positive" strategy of combined diagnosis with Aspergillus IgG LFA serves as a valuable supplement to current diagnostic approaches, particularly benefiting patients who cannot tolerate invasive bronchoscopic procedures.
Keywords: Acute invasive aspergillosis, subacute invasive aspergillosis, Non-neutropenic patients, Aspergillus IgG Lateral Flow Assay, diagnosis
Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lu, Zhong, Wang, Sun, Qing, Cai, Cai, Wang, Zhong and Su. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xin Su, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.