Antibodies to Candida albicans in hospital patients with and without spinal injury and in normal men and women.

The presence of serum agglutinins and precipitins to Candida albicans in men and women who had impaired bladder function following spinal injury is compared with that in other patients in hospital and in apparently fit men and women. Antibody levels which have commonly been regarded as significant were found in 35 of 76 patients who had urinary candidiasis; in 10 of 52 patients who had spinal injury without urinary candidiasis; in eight of 57 patients who had neither of these conditions, and in nine of 191 normal men and women. Observations are made on the antigens involved in these reactions and on the need for standardization of both reagents and techniques.