The role of galactomannan testing to diagnose invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in critically ill patients

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is an opportunistic infection caused by Aspergillus spp., a saprophytic filamentous fungus that is frequently isolated in the environment. The infection occurs most frequently in the lower respiratory tract (LRT) of immunocompromised patients with prolonged neutropenia or hematopoietic organ transplants (1,2). Significant progress has been made over the last 20 years in the development of diagnostic tools and decision algorithms as well as of effective antifungal drugs for IA (3), allowing for improved outcomes in non-critically ill immunocompromised patients due to the rapid initiation of appropriate therapy (4).