[Agar gel microdiffusion reaction in the serologic diagnosis of paracoccidioidomycosis]

We used the micro- and macroimmunodiffusion test for the qualitative and quantitative measurement of anti--P. brasiliensis antibodies in serum of patients with paracoccidioidomycosis. All 103 paracoccidioidomycosis sera (100%) were positive in the microtest versus 87% positivity index in the macrotest. All 83 control sera from patients with other diseases were negative in both tests. Titers of the positive sera tended to be higher in the microtest, which revealed sharper and easier to read precipiting bands. Microimmunodiffusion is simple to be performed, requires a minimum amount of reagents and allows the simultaneous testing of 102 sera. It may replace the macrotest specially in laboratories dealing with great serologic routine.