Non-cultural methods for the laboratory diagnosis of invasive fungal diseases / 中华检验医学杂志

Non-cultural laboratory diagnostic methods include fungal antigen detection, anti-fungal antibody detection and molecular methods. Fungal antigen detection aim at ( 1, 3 )-β-D-glucan, galactomannan, cryptococcal capsular polysaccharide antigen and candida mannan antigen.Different antigen is used to diagnose different fungal infection.Antifungal antibody include antibody against Histoplasma capsulatum, Coccidioides immitis/Paracoccidiodes and Blastomyces dermatitidis.Molecular methods include non-amplification nucleic acid detection, nucleic acid amplification test, direct sequencing and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry ( MALDI-TOF MS ) technology.Even though molecular methods are limited because of no standardization, the future of its usage is promising.