Lab21 has introduced a service to identify the two most common causes of fungal pneumonia.
The CE-marked test, FXGTM:RESP (ASP+), developed by UK diagnostic company Myconostica, will help to rapidly identify infections caused by Aspergillus and Pneumocystis, which account for more than 95 per cent of cases of fungal pneumonia.
It could radically alter the diagnosis of fungal disease.
Fungal pneumonia is the leading cause of death due to infectious diseases in leukaemia and bone marrow transplant patients and is the most common first manifestation of AIDS.
Accurate diagnosis of fungal pneumonia followed by appropriate antifungal treatment in the first 10 days of infection reduces the mortality rate from 90 per cent to 40 per cent.
Traditional methods used to identify fungal pneumonia infections can be inaccurate, insensitive and slow, with results typically taking 8 to 10 days.
