Fungal blood culture permanently discontinued, Wednesday, April 17, 2024

On Wednesday, April 17th the supply of fungal isolator tubes for both adults and pediatrics was exhausted and fungal blood culture (Epic LAB2217, fungal blood culture) will be terminated immediately.

There is no substitute for this testing, which has gone off the market because of the existence of more effective alternative testing. Routine blood cultures are effective for Candida spp., there are antigen tests and serological tests for some common fungi such as Histoplasma, and filamentous fungi such as Aspergillus are not recovered from blood but by direct sampling of the site of infection. Patient diagnosis and test performance characteristics can be addressed to the Infectious Diseases services or microbiology laboratory, respectively.

Questions specifically related to this issue can be directed to Bradley Ford, MD, PhD, Medical Director of Clinical Microbiology; (ext. 6-2990, bradley-ford@uiowa.edu; *8290).