Impact of pre-analytical variables in the determination of serum galactomannan

摘要: Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. Since Aspergillus species are usually not cultured in these patients, presumptive diagnosis of IA is more commonly based on galactomannan (GM) detection. Several factors are known to cause false-positive results in the GM test, but little is known on the influence of pre-analytical variables interfering on the test. Here we studied the influence of temperature and sample storage duration in GM results, using samples known to be negative and positive (spiked) for GM. We also evaluated the effect of hemolysis and hyperbilirubinemia on GM optical indexes. We found no influence of storage time (up to 96 h) and temperatures (refrigerated vs. RT) on GM results. However, bilirubin (P = .022) and haemoglobin (P = .003) content influenced GM readings in samples known for being GM positive and negative at baseline, respectively. We …