Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Serum galactomannan test for diagnosing cat upper respiratory
By Whitney, J et al.·Published in Veterinary microbiology·2013·Faculty of Veterinary Science, Australia·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Evaluation of serum galactomannan detection for diagnosis of feline upper respiratory tract aspergillosis.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of cats with upper respiratory problems was tested for a fungal infection called aspergillosis using a blood test that measures a substance called galactomannan. Out of the cats with confirmed aspergillosis, only a few tested positive, while many healthy cats and those treated with antibiotics showed false positives. The test was found to be moderately specific, meaning it could help rule out the infection in some cases, but it wasn't very sensitive, so it missed a lot of cases. Overall, while the test can be useful, it shouldn't be the only method used to diagnose this infection in cats.
People also search for: cat upper respiratory infection symptoms · feline aspergillosis diagnosis · galactomannan test for cats · cat respiratory problems treatment
Abstract
Measurement of serum galactomannan (GM), a polysaccharide fungal cell-wall component, is a non-invasive test for early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis in humans. Feline upper respiratory tract (URT) aspergillosis is an emerging infectious disease in cats. Diagnosis requires biopsy for procurement of tissue specimens for cytological or histological detection of fungal hyphae and for fungal culture. The aim of this study was to evaluate serum GM measurement as a non-invasive diagnostic test for URT aspergillosis in cats. A one-stage, immunoenzymatic sandwich ELISA was used to detect serum GM in 4 groups of cats; Group 1 (URT aspergillosis) - confirmed URT aspergillosis (n=13, sinonasal aspergillosis (SNA) n=6 and sino-orbital aspergillosis (SOA) n=7), Group 2 (URT other) - other URT diseases (n=15), Group 3 (β-lactam) - cats treated with β-lactam antibiotics for non-respiratory tract disease (n=14), Group 4a - healthy young cats (≤ 1 y of age, n=28), Group 4b - healthy adult cats (>1 y of age, n=16). One cat with SNA and two cats with SOA caused by an Aspergillus fumigatus-mimetic species, tested positive for serum GM. For a cut-off optical density index of 1.5, the overall sensitivity and specificity of the assay was 23% and 78% respectively. False positive results occurred in 29% of cats in Group 3 and 32% of cats in Group 4a. Specificity increased to 90% when Groups 3 and 4a were excluded from the analysis. Overall, serum GM measurement has a poor sensitivity but is a moderately specific, non-invasive screening test to rule out infection in patients with suspected feline upper respiratory tract aspergillosis.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23031342/