Usefulness of a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit for Candida mannan antigen for detecting Candida in oral rinse solutions.

OBJECTIVE The aim was to test the performance of a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit for Candida mannan antigen for detecting Candida in oral rinse solutions. STUDY DESIGN Forty-eight oral rinse solutions (38 from patients and 10 from healthy volunteers) were available. Mannan antigen was measured using a commercial sandwich ELISA kit, Unimedi Candida. The result of the mannan assay was compared with the result of conventional detection and identification by culture. RESULTS The result of the mannan assay revealed that 31 of 38 clinical and 3 of 10 healthy volunteer samples were positive for Candida. Using the culture as a gold standard, the overall sensitivity and specificity of the mannan antigen detection were 90.9% and 46.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study suggested that mannan antigen detection might be a possible and sensitive technique for the detection of oral Candida. The conditions of the ELISA-based assay should be optimized for oral rinse solutions.