False-positive galactomannan platelia Aspergillus test results for patients receiving piperacillin-tazobactam.

At the bone marrow transplantation center of the San Martino Hospital (Genoa), we observed an increase in the rate of patients with positive Platelia Aspergillus (PA; Bio-Rad) test results, from 10% (38 of 386 patients) in the period from January 1999 through January 2003 to 36% (21 of 59 patients) in the period from February 2003 through May 2003. Positivity was significantly (P<.001) associated with the administration of piperacillin-tazobactam (PT) (17 [74%] of 23 patients who received PT had positive results vs. 4 [11%] of 36 who did not receive PT). Multivariate analysis found administration of PT ( chi 2=34.7; P<.001) and underlying disease ( chi 2=21.14; P<.001) to be associated with PA positivity. Of 15 PT batches tested, 12 had positive PA test results.