<i>Aspergillus</i>antibody detection: diagnostic strategy and technical considerations from the Société Française de Mycologie Médicale (French Society for Medical Mycology) expert committee

Abstract

Until now, there has been no consensus on the best method for the detection of anti-Aspergillus antibodies, a key diagnostic tool for chronic aspergilloses. To better appreciate the usage of and confidence in these techniques, the Société Française de Mycologie Médicale (French Society for Medical Mycology; SFMM) performed a two-step survey of French experts. First, we administered an initial survey to French labs performing Aspergillus serology to depict usage of the different techniques available for Aspergillus serology. Second, an opinion poll was conducted of 40 experts via an online questionnaire. Each item was rated from 1 to 9 according to the level of agreement. The initial survey revealed that enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (81%) and immunoelectrophoresis (IEP) (67%) were the most commonly used techniques for screening and confirmation, respectively. The distinction between screening and confirmation techniques was confirmed by the experts (median = 7) with a 44.2% variation coefficient. Only ELISA for screening and IEP and Western blot (WB) for confirmation were clearly considered valuable methods (median ≥8 with variation coefficients less than 30%). The use of a confirmation technique was recommended in the case of a positive result in a compatible clinical context (cystic fibrosis, for example) or during the patient's follow-up. In the case of discordant results between the screening and confirmation techniques, the experts recommended greater confidence in the results obtained with the confirmation technique. All experts emphasized the need to standardize Aspergillus serology techniques and to better define the place of each of them in the diagnosis of aspergillosis.