This test is performed weekly on Tuesdays.
Specimens must be received by LabPlus by midday Monday for courier delivery to Waikato Hospital to meet the weekly batch run.
Two consecutive weekly serum specimens can be tested each week.
All Bronchoalveolar Lavage specimens will be cultured at LabPlus and an aliquot sent to Waikato if requested.
Not offered for one-off urgent specimens.
This test has shown some utility when prospective twice weekly serum samples are tested.
A single one off test is of limited value.
The specificity using the prospective twice weekly testing approach is 95 - 100% but the sensitivity varies from 40 - 80% depending on the study.
There is now increasing evidence that it is useful to test Bronchoalveolar Lavage fluid for galactomannan and a number of recent studies have shown it to be useful with sensitivities ranging from 67 - 100%.