The recent European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) and the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology (ISHAM) 2020 consensus classification proposes criteria to define coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19)-associated invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA), including mycological evidence obtained via non-bronchoscopic lavage. Given the low specificity of radiological findings in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, this criterion makes it difficult to differentiate between invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) and colonization. This unicenter and retrospective study includes 240 patients with isolates of any Aspergillus species in any respiratory samples during a 20-month study (140 IPA and 100 colonization). Mortality was high in the IPA and colonization groups (37.1% and 34.0%, respectively; p = 0.61), especially in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, where mortality was higher in colonized patients (40.7% vs. 66.6.%; p: 0.021). Multivariate analysis confirmed the following variables to be independently associated with increased mortality: age > 65 years, acute or chronic renal failure at diagnosis, thrombocytopenia (<100,000 platelets/µL) at admission, inotrope requirement, and SARS-CoV-2 infection, but not the presence of IPA. This series shows that the isolation of Aspergillus spp. in respiratory samples, whether associated with disease criteria or not, is associated with high mortality, especially in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and suggests an early initiation of treatment given its high mortality rate.
Keywords: CAPA; SARS-CoV-2; aspergillosis; colonization; thrombocytopenia.