Sensitivity and specificity of a blood and urine galactomannan antigen assay for diagnosis of systemic aspergillosis in dogs.

Background: Diagnosis of canine systemic aspergillosis requires fungal culture from a sterile site, or confirmatory histopathology from a nonsterile site. Invasive specimen collection techniques may be necessary.

Objective: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of a serum and urine Aspergillus galactomannan antigen (GMA) ELISA assay for diagnosis of systemic aspergillosis in dogs.

Design: Multicenter study.

Animals: Thirteen dogs with systemic aspergillosis and 89 dogs with other diseases. Thirty-seven of the 89 dogs had signs that resembled those of systemic aspergillosis and 52 dogs were not suspected to have aspergillosis.

Procedure: The GMA ELISA was performed on serum specimens from all dogs and urine specimens from 67 dogs. Galactomannan indices (GMI) ≥ 0.5 were considered positive. Results for dogs in each group were compared.

Results and conclusions: The sensitivity and specificity of the assay for serum were 92 and 86%, respectively, and for urine were 88 and 92%, respectively. False negatives were seen only in dogs with localized pulmonary aspergillosis. Use of a cutoff GMI of 1.5 increased specificity to 93% for both serum and urine without loss of sensitivity for diagnosis of disseminated infection. High-level false positives (> 1.5) occurred in dogs with other systemic mycoses and those treated with Plasmalyte.

Clinical relevance: Serum and urine Aspergillus GMA ELISA is a noninvasive, sensitive, and specific test for the diagnosis of disseminated aspergillosis in dogs when a cutoff GMI of ≥ 1.5 is used.