THE LACK OF UTILITY OF THE LATEX AGGLUTINATION-TEST FOR DETECTION OF CANDIDA ANTIGEN IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF SYSTEMIC CANDIDIASIS

The Ramco latex agglutination test in the diagnosis of systemic candidiasis was utilized for 11 serum samples from 10 patients with systemic candidiasis, 21 serum samples from patients colonized with Candida species, and 20 control serum samples from patients with stable medical problems and no evidence of Candida albicans infection. This study was double-blind and the results of the latex agglutination test did not influence the decision for antifungal therapy. Nine of 10 patients with systemic candidiasis had positive titers (greater-than-or-equal-to 1:4); however, these were determined only 1 to 5 days before culture positivity. Nine of 21 (43%) of colonized patients were falsely positive (greater-than-or-equal-to 1:4) and all of the control samples were negative. The Ramco latex agglutination test was unreliable and inconsistent in this small sample group to establish an early diagnosis of systemic candidiasis.