Diagnosis & Testing of Histoplasmosis

There are multiple tests available to diagnose histoplasmosis. One way to diagnose the infection is to perform a fungal culture.  Doctors take small samples from tissues or body fluids, such as blood, sputum, bone marrow, liver, or skin and see if the fungus will grow from these samples in a laboratory.

A urine test is available that can check for recent infection from Histoplasma, by measuring the presence of antigen.  Histoplasmosis can also be diagnosed by looking at a small sample of infected tissue under a microscope.  A blood test can measure prior exposure to the fungus by detecting Histoplasma antibodies.