Prevalence of Aspergillus and Candida precipitins in renal dialysis and transplant patients.

Abstract

Serum precipitin tests to Aspergillus and Candida antigens were used to define the rate of infectivity with these fungal organisms in patients on renal dialysis and after kidney transplantation. A total of 58 studies in 53 consecutive patients, of whom 41.5% were post-transplant an average of 14.6 months, failed to detect significantly more precipitin activity than in a normal population. The specificity of this non-immunoreactivity was supported by the absence of clinical or post-mortem evidence of fungal invasion. Since serum precipitins develop despite immunosuppressive therapy, and cases of fungal invasion in transplant recipients may occur sporadically in clusters, monitoring of renal transplant patients with these relatively simple tests should detect endemic occurrences of aspergillosis and candidiasis.