Clinical experience of urine D-arabinitol/L-arabinitol ratio in the early diagnosis of invasive candidiasis in paediatric high risk populations
Författare
Summary, in English
In 2 prospective studies, we previously reported on the early and accurate diagnosis of invasive candidiasis by determining the D-arabinitol/L-arabinitol (DA/LA) ratio in urine in neutropenic children with cancer at the paediatric oncology unit (POU) and in premature infants at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at our hospital. In this retrospective study at the same units, we report how the DA/LA assay was implemented in clinical practice immediately after the prospective study periods. We found that, in the POU, the recommendation of regularly monitoring urine DA/LA ratios in patients at risk and considering antifungal therapy in the case of elevated ratios had been followed. A significant decrease in the incidence of culture positive invasive candidiasis may have been attributed to the introduction of the DA/LA assay. At the NICU, where the DA/LA assay was recommended only as an adjunct to other diagnostic tools, morbidity in invasive candidiasis remained unchanged. While regular monitoring of the urine DA/LA ratio probably facilitates the early detection of invasive candidiasis in paediatric oncology, it remains to be determined if the test can be used in a similar way in neonatal intensive care.
Publiceringsår
2007
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
146-151
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases
Volym
39
Issue
2
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Informa Healthcare
Ämne
- Infectious Medicine
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 1651-1980