Galactomannan antigenemia and antigenuria in aspergillosis: studies in patients and experimentally infected rabbits.

Purified galactomannan (GM) from Aspergillus fumigatus was used in both a radioimmunoassay and an enzyme-linked immunoassay for antigen detection. Results of the two tests seemed interchangeable. By one or both assays, GM was detected in serum from four of 12 rabbits lethally infected with A. fumigatus in concentrations ranging from 108 to 356 ng/ml. Serum antigen was detected in only two of 12 patients with invasive aspergillosis. Results of assay for GM in urine were far more encouraging. Urinary GM was detectable throughout the course of lethal aspergillosis in all 16 rabbits, in concentrations of 24-1,900 ng/ml. Urine from seven of 13 patients with invasive aspergillosis had GM concentrations of 1-83 ng/ml. Antigen excretion roughly paralleled extent of disease.