Laboratory Diagnosis of Invasive Aspergillosis: From Diagnosis to Prediction of Outcome

Table 2

Main approaches to laboratory diagnosis.

Test	Specimens	Advantages	Disadvantages
Direct microscopy	Respiratory	Low cost	Insensitive, labour intensive
Culture	Respiratory, tissue	Low cost, enables further analysis	Insensitive
Histopathology	Tissue	Enables proven diagnosis	Requires biopsy tissue
Galactomannan (GM)	Serum, BAL	Sensitive, specimens easy to obtain	Lacks sensitivity in patients on antifungals
β-D-glucan (BDG)	Serum	Sensitive, specimens easy to obtain	Lacks specificity
PCR (DNA detection)	Any	Sensitive, can be applied to any specimen	Labour intensive, expensive