Therapy with antifungals decreases the diagnostic performance of PCR for diagnosing invasive aspergillosis in bronchoalveolar lavage samples of patients with haematological malignancies

Abstract

Treatment with mould-active antifungals prior to BAL sampling significantly decreases the performance of the Aspergillus PCR assay in haematological patients if BAL was performed after administration of more than one antifungal agent. Performing BAL sampling for Aspergillus PCR diagnostic despite pre-treatment with one antifungal or while on prophylaxis is feasible.