Latex agglutination test for detection of Candida antigen in patients with disseminated disease

Abstract

A latex agglutination test has been devised which allows detection of a circulating antigen in patients with systemic infection due toCandida albicans, Candida tropicalis andCandida parapsilosis. Latex is sensitized with serum from rabbits immunized with whole heat killedCandida albicans blastoconidia. The active component of this serum is IgG. Control latex, used to differentiate non-specific agglutination, is sensitized with the same dilution of serum from a rabbit without antibody toCandida species. Sera from a number of patient groups were tested. While none of the hundred normal controls had an antigen titer of ⩾ 1∶4, 30 of 33 patients with documented disseminated candida infection had antigen titers of 1∶4 to 1∶32. Two of the 33 gave false negative results, and one caused nonspecific agglutination. In all patients who recovered after antifungal therapy antigen levels returned to within the range found in normal controls.