Comparison of an established antibody sandwich method with an inhibition method of Histoplasma capsulatum antigen detection.

The Histoplasma antigen immunoassay utilizes an antibody sandwich method that provides a rapid and reliable means of diagnosing the more severe forms of histoplasmosis. Inhibition assays have been developed for antigen detection and offer at least one potential advantage, namely, reduced antibody requirements. We have developed an inhibition assay using the polyclonal antibody employed in our standard sandwich assay. Urine and serum specimens from patients with culture-proven histoplasmosis and controls were tested using both methods. The two methods had similar sensitivities for detection of antigen in urine (antibody sandwich = 92.5% versus inhibition = 87.5%, P = 0.500) and serum (82.5% versus 80.0%, P = 1. 000). With serum, the specificities of both methods were similar (antibody sandwich assay = 95.0% versus inhibition assay = 92.5%, P = 1.000), and with urine, the specificity of the antibody sandwich method was superior (97.5% versus 80.0%, P = 0.039). While the overall reproducibility of both methods was excellent (with urine, antibody sandwich assay intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.9975 and with serum = 0.9949; correlation coefficient of the inhibition assay with urine = 0.9736 and with serum = 0.9850), that of the inhibition method was only fair to poor for the controls: urine = -0. 0152, serum = 0.5595. Reproducibility was good for the controls using the sandwich method: urine = 0.7717, serum = 0.9470. Cross-reactivity was observed in specimens from patients infected with Blastomyces dermatitidis, Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, and Penicillium marneffei. In conclusion, the decreased specificity and inferior reproducibility with control specimens suggest that the inhibition assay has poorer precision toward the lower end of the detection range.