[Aspergillosis: Mechanisms of pathogenicity implicated and approach to laboratory diagnosis.].

Aspergillosis comprises a wide range of clinical conditions, of which the most serious is invasive aspergillosis, which particularly affects immunodeficient individuals. In the present work we present a review centred on three main aspects of this disease: 1) Possibility of differentiation of strains of Aspergillus fumigatus by phenotyphic and genotypic methods, 2) Mechanisms of pathogenicity of this species and especially the relationships of elastase activity, and 3) Laboratory diagnosis of aspergillosis, principaly in terms of determination of circulating antigens and DNA sequences in the blood and urine of patients.