Rapid and Sensitive Plate Method for Detection of Aspergillus fumigatus

Abstract

ABSTRACT The routine identification of Aspergillus fumigatus in clinical samples involves, apart from direct examination, the isolation of the organism on a plate followed by its microscopic characterization. This approach lacks sensitivity, specificity, and speed. A new procedure has been developed combining microcolony formation on a nylon membrane filter at 45°C with the detection of a specific 4-methylumbelliferyl-α- l -arabinopyranoside cleaving enzyme activity in digitonin permeabilized cells. The test takes approximately 14 h and has an efficiency of 98.2% and false-positive and -negative rates of 0 and 3.1%, respectively. When applied to 188 clinical samples taken from patients with proven or nonproven presence of Aspergillus species, a good agreement with the conventional plate-microscopy method was obtained.