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Diagnostic Approaches to Invasive Candidiasis: Challenges and New Perspectives

Summary

Invasive candidiasis is a serious fungal infection affecting critically ill patients in hospitals. Current testing methods like blood cultures are slow and sometimes miss the infection. Researchers are developing faster diagnostic tests using DNA detection and biomarkers that can identify infections within hours instead of days, allowing doctors to start treatment sooner and save more lives.

Background

Invasive candidiasis is a serious infectious disease affecting 2-10% of intensive care unit patients, caused by Candida fungi. Blood culture remains the gold standard but has limited sensitivity and prolonged turnaround time. Current diagnostic methods face challenges in sensitivity, specificity, and rapid species identification.

Objective

This narrative review summarizes current diagnostic approaches for invasive candidiasis, emphasizing molecular methods and biomarkers relevant to critically ill patients. The review highlights key themes and challenges in the evolving landscape of invasive candidiasis diagnostics.

Results

Blood culture has 50-75% sensitivity with 2-5 day turnaround time. Newer methods like T2Candida and PCR-based techniques provide faster results within hours but with variable sensitivity (0-100%). Beta-D-glucan detection shows sensitivities ranging from 9.1-96.6% depending on study design. Siderophores emerge as promising novel biomarkers for fungal infection diagnosis.

Conclusion

A multifaceted diagnostic approach combining traditional methods with novel biomarkers and rapid molecular diagnostics is essential for improving patient outcomes. Continuous operation of clinical microbiology laboratories and integration of emerging diagnostic tools like siderophores could reduce diagnostic delays and improve treatment efficacy.
  • Published in:Mycopathologia,
  • Study Type:Narrative Review,
  • Source: PMID: 41387569
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