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Introduction: Microbial agents account for the etiology of 75% of Acute Exacerbations of COPD (AE-COPD). However, the role of non-usual microorganisms such as Aspergillus spp. has not been well established. Aspergillus-Galactomannan Antigen (AGA) can be easily measured in serum samples, and thus has been widely used as a complementary diagnostic marker for the diagnosis of Aspergillus disease.
Materials and methods: A hospital based observational study was conducted at department of chest and TB of a tertiary care centre. Study included 50 diagnosed cases of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Serum galactomannan levels were investigated in all cases from November 2020-February 2022. Cut-off for the same to predict AE-COPD was calculated based on ROC analysis.
Results: The prevalence of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis (IPA) as an etiology for AECOPD was 70%. On ROC analysis, for a cut-off of >=1, the sensitivity and specificity of AGA was 97.1% and 73.3% with overall accuracy of 90% for diagnosing IPA.
Conclusion: Study concluded that serum AGA index is a useful diagnostic modality for identification of invasive Aspergillosis as a cause of AECOPD. At a cut-off value of >1, it has an excellent sensitivity and good specificity. Majority of these patients had longer hospital stay as compared to non-IPA cases.
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