[Serological diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis--measurement of IgG-, IgM- and IgA- antibodies against Aspergillus fumigatus by means of ELISA].

Serological diagnosis plays an important role in the diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis, however, precipitation-in-gel test is neither sensitive nor quantitative. Recently, several investigators have used the ELISA technique for the detection of antibodies against Aspergillus fumigatus and reported the usefulness of this method. In this report, we measured IgG-, IgM-, and IgA- antibody titers against Aspergillus fumigatus by means of ELISA in sera from patients with several different lung diseases including pulmonary aspergillosis. The results obtained were as follows: 1) Measurement of IgG-antibody titers was most useful for the diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis. 2) Measurement of IgG-antibody titers was more sensitive than precipitation-in-gel test. 3) IgG-antibody titer was quantitative and reflected the clinical course of pulmonary aspergillosis.