Evaluación del inmunoanálisis enzimático en el diagnóstico y seguimiento de pacientes con coccidioidomicosis

this study evaluated the enzymatic immune analysis (eia) procedure for the diagnosis and follow-up of coccidioidomycosis (cdm) patients. three hundred and sixty (360) serum samples were studied using two exoantigens of coccidioides spp.: 38 obtained from patients with clinical, mycological and immunological cdm diagnosis, 100 from healthy individuals, 50 from individuals sensitized to coccidiodine, and 172 from individuals with other pathologies. it was estimated a 71.1% of sensitivity for both antigens, with a 98% specificity (ag 1), and 96% (ag 2), positive predictive values of 93.1% (ag 1) and 87.1% (ag 2), and negative predictive values of 89.9% (ag 1) and 89.7% (ag 2). the positive verisimilitude rates were 35.6 (ag 1) and 17.8 (ag 2), and 0.3 negative verisimilitude rates for both antigens. the global potency of the eia was estimated as 90.6% (ag 1) and 89.1% (ag 2). the kappa index reflected a good concordance with the idd. no correspondence between the absorbance detected by the eia and the title of specific antibodies obtained through idd was observed in the follow-up of cdm patients. cross reactions with serum samples from paracoccidioidomycosis and histoplasmosis patients was observed. it was concluded that the eia can be a useful technique for the diagnosis but not for the follow-up of cdm patients.