English abstract
Candida albicans is a known commensal in humans. În immunocompromised patients, it
can become pathogenic leading to invasive disease and high mortality rates. Early detection is of great importance. This study was conducted to compare antibody titers for 3 classes of antibodies (IgA, IgM, IgG) using ELISA kits with PCR detection of C. albicans DNA, alongside standard techniques routinely used for identification in CU mycology laboratory, Gram stain, germ tube formation and API identification, were also used. Blood samples were collected from 27 immunocompromised patients and analyzed for antibody titers. Two patients showed raised antibody titers for C. albicans and had shown growth of C, albicans on previous blood cultures. Overall ELISA results were considered to be inconclusive. PCR was not routinely being used for diagnosis of C.
albicans therefore a number of methods had to be tried. The patients' samples were analyzed for C. albicans DNA using PCR. All mycology and PCR results for the patients' samples were negative. It is proposed that combined detection of antigen and antibody by ELISA be usedinstead of ELISA for antibody only. Use of BACTEC blood culture bottlesforbothmycological identification and PCR detection has a greater advantage over the samples collected and processed for this study.
