Malik R, Speed B R, Kaldor J, Cairns B, Pegorer M, Wigney D I, Love D N
Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Med Mycol. 1999 Feb;37(1):43-51.
Anti-cryptococcal antibodies were measured in normal cats, dogs, horses and koalas, and cats, dogs and koalas with cryptococcosis using an enzyme immunoassay. Antibody levels were expressed as absorbance readings. Over 80% of cats and dogs with cryptococcal infection had elevated antibody levels at the time of diagnosis, during or after successful therapy. Antibody levels in these patients either remained elevated or declined slowly after treatment. For cats, anti-cryptococcal antibody levels were higher in C. neoformans var. gattii than var. neoformans infections, and lower in mild than in moderate or severe infections. The persistence of increased anti-cryptococcal antibody levels in over half of the feline and canine cases following active infection suggested the use of antibody determinations as a seroepidemiologic marker of previous infection. Consequently, antibody measurements from 'normal' animals indicated a prevalence of previous cryptococcal infection of 10% in cats and dogs, compared with 3% in horses and 5% in koalas. Preliminary studies of young animals suggested that anti-cryptococcal antibody levels were substantially lower in the young cats but not the young dogs surveyed, compared with their mature counterparts. The cut-offs used in the present work may thus be erroneously high, with a corresponding underestimation of the prevalence of inapparent cryptococcosis.
采用酶免疫分析法对正常猫、狗、马和考拉，以及患有隐球菌病的猫、狗和考拉进行抗隐球菌抗体检测。抗体水平以吸光度读数表示。超过80%的患有隐球菌感染的猫和狗在诊断时、成功治疗期间或治疗后抗体水平升高。这些患者的抗体水平在治疗后要么持续升高，要么缓慢下降。对于猫来说，新型隐球菌变种加蒂感染时的抗隐球菌抗体水平高于新型变种感染，轻度感染时的抗体水平低于中度或重度感染。在超过一半的猫和狗感染病例中，抗隐球菌抗体水平在活跃感染后持续升高，这表明可将抗体检测用作既往感染的血清流行病学标志物。因此，对“正常”动物的抗体检测表明，猫和狗既往隐球菌感染的患病率为10%，马为3%，考拉为5%。对幼龄动物的初步研究表明，与成年猫相比，受调查的幼龄猫抗隐球菌抗体水平显著较低，但幼龄狗并非如此。因此，本研究中使用的临界值可能错误地偏高，从而相应低估了隐性隐球菌病的患病率。
