Table 3.
The performance of BDG assays in recent studies on pneumocystosis in patients with haematological malignancies (HM).
| Study | Patients | Comparison | Cut-Off, pg/mL | Sensitivity % (95% CI) |
Specificity % (95% CI) |
PPV (95% CI) | NPV (95% CI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engsbro et al., 2019 [47] | N = 45, HIV, SOT, HSCT, HM, solid cancer | BDG compared to immunofluorescence microscopy | |||||
| All patients | 60 | 89 (52–100) | 48 (23–72) | ||||
| 80 | 89 (52–100) | 65 (38–86) | |||||
| PCR-positive patients | 60 | 100 (16–100) | 71 (29–96) | ||||
| 80 | 100 (16–100) | 74 (54–89) | |||||
| BDG compared to clinical categorization | |||||||
| All patients | 60 | 89 (65–99) | 64 (42–81) | ||||
| 80 | 83 (59–96) | 74 (54–89) | |||||
| PCR-positive patients | 60 | 87 (59–98) | 100 (16–100) | ||||
| 80 | 80 (52–96) | 100 (16–100) | |||||
| Morjaria et al., 2019 [42] | N = 53 HM, HSCT, solid cancer | BDG performance vs. PCR in PCR-positive cases | |||||
| Definite/Probable PJP | 80 | 87% | 84.6% | 94.6 | 68.8 | ||
| Definite/Probable PJP | 200 | 70% | 100% | 100 | 52 | ||
| Szvalb et al., 2020 [56] | N = 101 HM, Solid cancer | BDG performance in PCR-positive cases | |||||
| 80 | 53.5 (43.8–62.9) | 78.4 (67.7–86.2) | 7.8 (4.4–11.2) | 98.0 (97.6–98.5) | |||
| 200 | 41.6 (32.5–51.3) | 87.8 (78.5–93.5) | 10.4 (4.3–16.5) | 97.8 (97.4–98.2) | |||
| 400 | 35.6 (27.0–45.4) | 93.2 (85.1–97.1) | 15.2 (3.8–26.5) | 97.7 (97.3–98.1) | |||
| Damiani et al., 2021 [53] | N = 39 Systemic autoimmune or inflammatory disorder, SOT, HM, solid cancer | Proven PJP, defined as a positive microscopic detection of P. jirovecii in BAL | |||||
| All patients | 80 | 87 (73–94) | 97 (87–99) | 97 (85–99) | 88 (75–95) | ||
| Only HM population | 80 | 64 (35–85) | 100 (74–100) | 100 (64–100) | 73 (48–89) | ||
BDG, serum (1,3)-beta-D glucan; CI, Confidence Interval; HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Virus; SOT, Solid Organ Transplant; HSCT, Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, HM, Hematologic Malignancy.