Dissociation of mannan--serum complexes and detection of Candida albicans mannan by enzyme immunoassay variations.

Candida albicans mannan was added to normal human sera and the resulting complexes were dissociated by boiling (boil) with EDTA or by alkali treatment (bead method). The mannan released was detected by "sandwich" enzyme immunoassay (EIA) or by EIA inhibition. Each EIA took 2.3 h to perform. The total time for the boil-EIA combination was 2.7 h and for the bead-EIA, 3.8 h. The temperature favorable for antigen--antibody incubation was 4 degrees C. The sandwich EIAs were preferable to EIA inhibition because absorbance was directly proportional to mannan concentration, within-run variation was decreased, and accuracy was increased. The boil-sandwich EIA had the highest sensitivity in the 12.5 to 200 micrograms/L range.