Diagnosis of systemic candidosis by immunodiffusion test with locally prepared antigen

Locally-made C. albicans, C. tropicalis, C. krusei antigens and antisera were made and compared with reference C. albicans and C. krusei antigens and antisera from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., and the Provincial Laboratory of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, respectively. The local antigens and antisera showed 3 precipitin bands when reacted with locally-made and reference antisera. When tested with human sera from 171 normal persons (aged 17-24 years), 30 Candida vaginitis, 30 Candida balanitis, 30 mucocutaneous candidosis, 30 pityriasis versicolor and 10 aspergillosis patients revealed no precipitin band. When tested with cryptococcosis, 2 out of 6 sera showed a precipitin band but only at 1:1 dilution. Four candidosis sera offered by CDC showed precipitin bands at dilutions up to 1:4. Three Thai candidosis sera also showed precipitin bands at dilutions up to 1:2. Therefore, we judged the baseline titer for Thai population to be 1:2.