[Increased sensitivity to Candida in patients with bronchial asthma].

As many as 86 children aged 3 to 14 years with bronchial asthma were examined using mycological, immunological and allergological methods including the prick-test, basophil degranulation test (direct Shelley's test) and leukocyte migration inhibition test with Candida antigen. As far as the patients living in the vicinity of a microbiological factory are concerned, hypersensitivity to Candida was detected in 83.3% of cases, primarily that of the delayed type (37%). In children with verified candidiasis, hypersensitivity to Candida fungi was also detectable in 83.3% of cases, but in the majority of patients (47%), it was of the immediate type. In the control group, allergic candidiasis was diagnosed in 20% of cases. Clinically, bronchial asthma associated with allergic candidiasis was characterized by refractory, lingering obstructive bronchitis amenable to antimycotic drugs.