Invasive mucormycosis is a fungal infection with high mortality. Early diagnosis and initiation of appropriate treatment is essential to improve survival. However, current diagnostic tools suffer from low sensitivity, leading to delayed or missed diagnoses. Recently, several PCR assays for the detection of Mucorales DNA have been developed. We retrospectively assessed the diagnostic and kinetic properties of a commercial Mucorales PCR assay (MucorGenius, PathoNostics) on serial blood samples from patients with culture-positive invasive mucormycosis and found an overall sensitivity of 75%. Importantly, a positive test preceded a positive culture result by up to 81 days (median eight days, inter-quartile range 1.75-16.25). After initiation of appropriate therapy, the average levels of circulating DNA decreased after one week and stabilized after two weeks. In conclusion, detection of circulating Mucorales DNA appears to be a good, fast diagnostic test that often precedes the final diagnosis by several days to weeks. This test could be especially useful in cases in which sampling for culture or histopathology is not feasible.
Keywords: Mucorales; PCR; circulating DNA; diagnosis; mucormycosis.