New enzyme immunoassays for sensitive detection of circulating Candida albicans mannan and antimannan antibodies: useful combined test for diagnosis of systemic candidiasis.

ABSTRACT: Two standardized enzyme immunoassays for the serological diagnosis of candidiasis were developed. The first one detects antimannan antibodies, while the second one detects mannan with a sensitivity of 0.1 ng/ml. These tests were applied to 162 serum samples retrospectively selected from 43 patients with mycologically and clinically proven candidiasis caused by Candida albicans. Forty-three serum samples were positive for mannan, and 63 had significant antibody levels. Strikingly, only five serum samples were simultaneously positive by both tests. When the results were analyzed per patient, 36 (84%) presented at least one serum positive by one test. For 30 of them, positivity by one test was always associated with negative results by the other test for any of the tested sera. For six patien

SUBMITTER: Sendid B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC84817 | biostudies-literature | 1999 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature