Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
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<jats:title>Background</jats:title>
<jats:p>Invasive scedosporiosis and lomentosporiosis are life-threatening fungal infections in immunocompromised patients with complex diagnostic and treatment patterns.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Objectives</jats:title>
<jats:p>To develop a scoring tool to facilitate and quantify adherence to current guideline recommendations for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of invasive scedosporiosis and lomentosporiosis.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Methods</jats:title>
<jats:p>Experts from European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) excellence centres reviewed current guidelines for scedosporiosis and lomentosporiosis. Recommendations for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up were summarized, assembled and weighted according to their strength of recommendation and level of evidence (strongly recommended = 3 points; moderately recommended = 2 points; marginally recommended = 1 point; recommended against = 0 points). Additional items considered of high importance for clinical management were also weighted.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Results</jats:title>
<jats:p>A total of 170 recommendations were identified. A 21-item tool was developed and embedded into the EQUAL score card. Nine items for diagnosis with 18 achievable points were assembled. For treatment, three general recommendation items with a maximal score of 9 were identified, while for specific antifungal treatment the two fungal pathogens were separated. Three and four items were established for scedosporiosis and lomentosporiosis, respectively, with a maximum achievable score of 3 due to the separation of different treatment options with the maximum point value of 3 for voriconazole-based treatment. Follow-up comprised two items (4 points maximum). Key recommendations for clinical outcome were weighted accordingly.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title>
<jats:p>We propose the EQUAL Score Scedosporiosis/Lomentosporiosis to quantify adherence to current guideline recommendations for management of these rare infections. The score remains to be validated in real-life patient cohorts and correlated with patient outcome.</jats:p>
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