Résumé
Candidemia is now considered an important and common infection among immunocompromised patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate Real-Time PCR and ELISA for detection of antigen and IgM antibody of Candida albicans as diagnostic tools in comparison with blood culture as a gold standard. The study included 80 persons divided into control group that included 20 healthy persons and patients group that included 30 patients with hematological malignancy and 30 patients in intensive care unit [ICU], all patients were carefully selected to be highly suspected clinically to have candidemia
Results: Blood culture revealed 25 positive candida cases among the 60 patients, 19 cases of them were C. albicans. Real-Time PCR had sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 95.1% and accuracy of 96.6%. ELISA for mannan antigen had sensitivity of 84.2%, specificity of 100% and accuracy of 95%. Detection of IgM antibody by ELISA had sensitivity of 73.7%, specificity of 92.7% and accuracy of 86.7% for diagnosis of C. albicans
Conclusion: Real-Time PCR had the highest sensitivity and accuracy, ELISA for mannan antigen had the highest specificity while ELISA for IgM antibody had the lowest sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Results of diagnosing C. albicans candidemia by Real-Time PCR and ELISA for mannan antigen are promising and can be useful as rapid diagnostic tools