Evaluation of the new Asp ID polymerase chain reaction assay for detection of Aspergillus species: A pilot study

The newly developed AspID PCR assay for detection of Aspergillus spp. was evaluated with an interlaboratory quality control programme panel and human bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples. With the quality control programme, 8 out of 9 panel members were correctly identified. With the clinical study, 36 BALF samples that had been obtained from 18 patients with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) and 18 without IPA were investigated. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratio for the AspID assay were 94.1% (95% CI 73.3-99.9), 76.5% (95% CI 50.1-93.2), 4 (95% CI 1.7-9.5) and 0.1 (95% CI 0.01-0.5) respectively.