ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the clinical value of plasma(1,3)-β-D-glucan detection(G test)in the diagnosis of invasive fun-gal infections(IFI).Methods The plasma samples were collected in 67 cases of IFI,61 cases of non-IFI and 48 healthy controls from January to September 2013.The level of(1,3)-D-glucan in plasma was detected by the kinetic turbidimetric assay and the opti-mal critical value of the G test was determined by receiver operating characteristic curve(ROC).Results The levels of(1,3)-β-D glucan in the IFI,non-IFI and healthy control groups showed the non-normal distribution.However,the median level of plasma(1, 3)-β-D glucan in the IFI group was 208.00pg/mL,which was significantly higher than 61.30 pg/mL(Z =-5.083,P <0.01)in the non-IFI group and 31.16 pg/mL(Z =-8.288,P <0.01)in the healthy control group.The area under ROC of the G test for diag-nosing IFI was 0.846 and the optimal critical value was 90.49pg/mL.The corresponding sensitivity,specificity,positive and nega-tive predictive values were 86.6%,77.1%,69.9% and 90.3%,respectively;at the same time,which of the fungal culture for diag-nosing IFI were 53.7%,94.5%,85.7% and 61.9% respectively.Conclusion Plasma(1,3)-β-D-glucan detection exhibits the high sensitivity and the better negative predictive value for the diagnosis of IFI.But the false positive results occur at times.It is sugges-ted that the G test can be dynamically conducted combined with the fungal culture for improving the efficiency of IFI diagnosis.