Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is an emerging disease in patients with common chronic pulmonary diseases (CPDs). While its prevalence is linked to tuberculosis (TB) in endemic countries, epidemiological and prognostic data are lacking in low TB incidence countries. The aim of this study was to describe these features in CPA patients hospitalised in France between 2009 and 2018.We estimated the prevalence and mortality of hospitalised CPA patients using the French nationwide administrative hospital database. We also assessed the association with CPD, thoracic interventions and malnutrition.From 2009 to 2018, 17 290 patients were hospitalised in France for CPA, with an increasing prevalence during this period. Most patients were male (63.5%) with a median age of 65 years at CPA diagnosis, living in farming regions and large cities. The proportion of underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema during the previous 5 years was 44% and 22%, respectively, whereas it was only 3% for both TB and non-TB mycobacterial (NTM) infections. The mortality rates during the first hospitalisation, at 1 year and at 5 years were 17%, 32% and 45%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, mortality rates were increased in patients aged >65 years, male patients and patients with malnutrition, diabetes or lung cancer history. The risk of mortality in patients with COPD or emphysema was higher than in those with previous mycobacterial lung infection.In France, CPA is an emerging infection commonly associated with non-mycobacterial CPD. This shift in the distribution profile of underlying CPD will likely worsen CPA mortality.

The MDR/MTB ELITe MGB^® kit (ELITech) carried on the ELITe InGenius^® platform is a new real-time PCR assay allowing automated extraction and detection of DNA of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTB) and mutations in the rpoB and katG genes and inhA promoter region (pro-inhA) associated to resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid, the two markers of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR). We assessed the performances of the test on a collection of strains (n = 54) and a set of clinical samples (n = 242) from routine practice, comparatively to TB diagnosis and genotypic drug susceptibility testing (gDST) as references. Regarding the 242 clinical samples, the sensitivity and specificity of MTB detection by ELITe were 90.9% and 97.5%, respectively. For the detection of resistance-conferring mutations on positive clinical samples, we observed perfect agreement with gDST for katG and pro-inhA (κ = 1.0) and two discordant results for rpoB (κ = 0.82). Considering the 54 cultured strains, very good agreement with gDST was observed for the detection of the 25 distinct mutations in rpoB, katG, and pro-inhA, (κ = 0.95, 0.88, and 0.95, respectively). In conclusion, the automated MDR/MTB ELITe MGB^® assay shows great promise and appears to be a valuable tool for rapid detection of pre-MDR- and MDR-TB directly from clinical specimens.

Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is the most frequent site of TB and the one leading its spread worldwide. Multiple specimens are commonly collected for TB diagnosis including those requiring invasive procedures. This study aimed to review the sampling strategy for the microbiological diagnosis of pulmonary TB. A retrospective analysis of collected samples from September 1st 2014 to May 1st 2016 in the Bacteriology laboratory of Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital (Paris, France) was performed. All the samples collected in patients aged over 18 years for the bacteriological diagnosis of pulmonary TB were included. A total of 6267 samples were collected in 2187 patients. One hundred and twenty-six patients (6%) had a culture confirmed pulmonary TB. Among them, multiple sputum collections were sufficient for TB diagnosis in 63.5%, gastric lavages permitted to avoid bronchoscopy in only 7.1%, and bronchoscopy was necessary in 29.4%. The culture positivity of sputa (8.6%) was higher than that of bronchial aspirations (3.1%), bronchiolo-alveolar lavages (BAL) (2.3%) or gastric lavages (4.8%) (P<0.001). From its 70.0% theoretical PPV value, the 46.1% selection in bronchial aspirations allocated to molecular test increased PPV up to 88.9%. Based on our data, we suggest to collect sputum consistently. If smear negative a bronchoscopy should be performed and molecular diagnosis be performed on a subset of bronchial aspirations based on expertise of the bronchoscopist.