Usefulness of a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit for Candida mannan antigen for detecting Candida in oral rinse solutions.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to test the performance of a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit for Candida mannan antigen for detecting Candida in oral rinse solutions. STUDY DESIGN: Forty-eight oral rinse solutions (38 from patients and 10 from healthy volunteers) were available. Mannan antigen was measured using a commercial sandwich ELISA kit, Unimedi Candida. The result of the mannan assay was compared with the result of conventional detection and identification by culture. RESULTS: The result of the mannan assay revealed that 31 of 38 clinical and 3 of 10 healthy volunteer samples were positive for Candida. Using the culture as a gold standard, the overall sensitivity and specificity of the mannan antigen detection were 90.9% and 46.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggested that mannan antigen detection might be a possible and sensitive technique for the detection of oral Candida. The conditions of the ELISA-based assay should be optimized for oral rinse solutions.