Circulating Candida-specific anti-mannan antibodies precede invasive candidiasis in patients undergoing myelo-ablative chemotherapy.

The kinetics of circulating Candida mannan and anti-mannan antibodies were studied in consecutive plasma samples, obtained upon hospital admission, of 21 patients with microbiologically proven invasive candidiasis and 30 control patients who underwent myelo-ablative chemotherapy. The detection of Candida anti-mannan antibodies preceded the diagnosis of invasive candidiasis in infected patients, and the antibodies were detected significantly more often in patients who had experienced multiple episodes of neutropenia than in the control group (OR 8.9, 95% CI 5.6-14.3; p <0.05). Mannan was predominantly detected in patients who developed invasive candidiasis during their first episode of neutropenia (OR 3.7, 95% CI 1.4-9.7; p <0.05). This observation suggests that patients with multiple episodes of neutropenia have been previously exposed to Candida and that the presence of anti-mannan antibodies in these patients might be associated with an increased risk of developing clinically manifest invasive candidiasis.