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. 2020 Jul 21;2020(7):CD009833. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD009833.pub2

Summary of findings 1. Summary of findings.

Participants/Populations: immunocompromised people at risk for invasive fungal infections
Prior testing: none
Settings: hospital setting
Index test: commercially available serum BDG test
Importance: test needed to accurately detect fungal infections in susceptible people at an early enough stage to facilitate
antifungal treatment
Reference standard: EORTC/MSG criteria, or by microscopy or autopsy
Studies: 49 studies with 6244 participants
1. Test assay
Test/Subgroup No. of participants
(studies)
Overall sensitivity
(range)
Overall specificity
(range)
Implications Quality and comments
Fungitell 4316
(36)
27% to 100% 0 to 100% Wide variation in sensitivity
and specificity. Summary estimates
would not be meaningful  
Glucatell 957
(5)
50% to 92% 41% to 94% Wide variation in sensitivity
and specificity. Summary estimates
would not be meaningful  
Wako 420
(3)
50% to 86% 89% to 100%   Insufficient number of studies for meta‐analysis
Fungitec‐G 353
(3)
67% to 88% 60% to 85%   Too few studies for meta‐analysis
Dynamiker Fungus 198
(2)
64% to 81% 78% to 80%   Too few studies for meta‐analysis
2. Fungal organism
Test/Subgroup No. of participants
(studies)
Sensitivity estimate
(95% CI)
Specificity estimate
(95% CI)
Implications Quality and comments
Candida 1185
(10)
81%
(75% to 86%)
64%
(56% to 72%)
Results are more homogeneous for Candida testing
than for all fungi
 

BDG: beta‐D‐glucan test; CI: confidence interval; EORTC/MSG: European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Mycoses Study Group.