[Comparison of immunodiffusion and counterimmunoelectrophoresis for the detection of precipitating antibodies against Candida and Aspergillus antigens].

Early diagnosis of disseminated fungal infections is a major problem in patients at risk, e.g. patients with malignancies or other severe illnesses. A number of serological tests for the detection of fungal antigens or antibodies can be performed in addition to culture methods. Valuable serological tests exist for the detection of precipitating antibodies to Candida sp. or Aspergillus sp. Precipitating antibodies against intracellular fungal antibodies can be detected by the immunodiffusion test (ID) or by counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIE). In our study 103 patients' sera were examined in parallel with these two methods for antibodies against Candida sp. and 100 sera for antibodies against Aspergillus sp. The results indicate that counterimmunoelectrophoresis is more sensitive than immunodiffusion, and that the results of CIE also correlate better with elevated titers in other serological tests, e.g. the hemagglutination test or the immunofluorescence test. One of the limitations is that precipitating antibodies cannot be detected until relatively late in the course of infection. This disadvantage is further intensified by the long duration of performance of the immunodiffusion test in the laboratory. In comparison with the ID test, the detection of precipitating antibodies by counterimmunoelectrophoresis shortened the duration of performance in our laboratory by up to 5 days.