Within medical mycology, the availability of new diagnostic tools has had significant impact on the management of patients at risk for invasive fungal infection, as well as on the speed that results are available. New techniques include the detection of fungal antigens, such as cryptococcal antigen, mannan, galactomannan, and (1-3)-b-D-glucan, which were found to circulate in blood of patients with invasive fungal disease. Besides these biomarkers, the detection of genomic fungal DNA has been intensively investigated, and commercial formats are becoming available that help to diagnose invasive fungal infection early in the course of
