Serologic procedures are widely used in establishing the diagnosis of aspergillosis, blastomycosis, candidiasis, coccidioidomycosis, cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis, and paracoccidioidomycosis. Frequently, they are the primary basis for detecting these diseases. The serodiagnosis of aspergillosis, candidiasis, cryptococcosis, and histoplasmosis is reviewed here in detail, since these are cosmopolitan diseases. All of these mycoses have assumed greater importance in the last two decades because of their ability to affect immunocompromised persons. Some of these mycoses have restricted geographic limits, but physicians far from their endemic areas should know how to diagnose them because travel to and transient work in foreign nations have become commonplace. In some situations, however, conventional mycoserologic tests are inadequate, and newer serologic procedures and reagents are being developed and evaluated. The usefulness and pitfalls of both the conventional and the newer tests are reviewed. Because immunologic testing of cerebrospinal fluid for diagnosing mycotic infections of the central nervous system is frequently neglected, the life-saving value of such examinations is emphasized in this review.

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