Antigen detection in the diagnosis and management of a patient with probable cerebral aspergillosis treated with voriconazole.

This report describes the diagnosis and management of a 16-year-old boy who developed neurological signs and symptoms suggestive of cerebral aspergillosis following a haploidentical bone marrow transplant. A new sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of Aspergillus galactomannan circulating antigens (Platelia Aspergillus, Sanofi Diagnostic Pasteur, France) was used on serum and cerebrospinal fluid to obtain a presumptive diagnosis and to monitor the course of the disease. Having failed conventional therapy with amphotericin B, the patient received compassionate treatment with voriconazole for a period of 37 days.

[Infectious complications in liver transplant in Italy: current status and prospectives].

The impact of infections in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is remarkable. Studies have shown that about 60% of patient may develop at least 1 infectious episode during the first 3 months after transplant. Within the frame of a Finalized Research Project of the Italian Ministry of Health, during the year 2000 a group of investigators belonging to the major Italian Liver Transplant Centers (LTC)--18 out of 20 Centers--met three times in Genoa with the aim of constituting a Research Group aimed at improving our knowledge of infectious complications in liver transplant recipients (PITF = Program of Infections in Liver Transplantation).