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Molecular Diagnosis in Fungal Infection Control

  • New Technologies and Advances in Infection Prevention (A Marra, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Opinion statement

Fungal infections have been increasingly concerned because of their substantial morbidity and mortality especially among immunocompromised individuals. Early diagnosis is crucial and shown to improve treatment outcomes. The current goal standard methods including fungal culture and pathology are far from ideal due to their poor sensitivity, time consuming and invasive procedures often required. Molecular techniques have been developed as new diagnostic methods in many infectious disease conditions including fungal infection. These molecular approaches are available for variety of fungal species, proved to expedite time to initiate an appropriate antifungal agent and can be used directly in clinical specimens. Moreover, a combination of new molecular techniques and conventional diagnostic tests is attractive since it provided higher sensitivity without sacrificing specificity. In addition, these molecular tests are potentially used in current clinical practice as a marker to initiate prophylactic, preemptive, or empirical treatments. However, further clinical validation is required before generalizing these tests to a routine clinical practice.

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Conflict of Interest

Jakapat Vanichanan has no conflicts of interest. Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner is a consultant and/or speaker for Pfizer, Merck and Astellas and has received research funding from Pfizer, Merck, Astellas, Associates of Cape Cod, and T2 Biosystems.

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  1. Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6431 Fannin, MSB 2.112, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Jakapat Vanichanan MD & Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner MD, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA

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  1. Jakapat Vanichanan MD
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  2. Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner MD, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA
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Correspondence to Jakapat Vanichanan MD.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on New Technologies and Advances in Infection Prevention

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Vanichanan, J., Ostrosky-Zeichner, L. Molecular Diagnosis in Fungal Infection Control. Curr Treat Options Infect Dis 7, 1–13 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40506-015-0040-x

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