Evaluation of five commercial tests: complement fixation, microparticle agglutination, indirect immunofluorescence, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and latex agglutination, in comparison to immunoblotting for Mycoplasma pneumoniae serology.
A panel of 68 serum specimens from 41 subjects exhibiting various immunological patterns to Mycoplasma pneumoniae as determined by detection of a 180 kDa protein in immunoblotting was used to compare five commercially available tests based on different methods: complement fixation test (CFT), microparticle agglutination (MAG), indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Elisa), and latex agglutination (LA). The tests were performed according to the manufacturers' instructions. For the determination of immunity to M pneumoniae, the five tests were in good accordance with immunoblotting: sensitivity was 100% for all the five assays, specificity ranged from 95.6% (MAG) to 82.6% (Elisa) and overall agreement ranged from 98.2% (MAG) to 92.8% (Elisa). The comparisons of antibody rates obtained by the four quantitative tests (CFT, MAG, IFA, Elisa) showed correlation coefficients ranging from 0.87 (CFT-IFA) to 0.67 (CFT-Elisa). Six significant antibody rises demonstrated by immunoblotting patterns were detected by all the tests but Elisa in one case. As a whole, the commercial assays gave satisfactory results for routine determination of immune status to M pneumoniae: CFT was the cheapest test and MAG and LA were the easiest to perform.
Aubert
G
G
Laboratoire de Bactériologie-Virologie, Faculté de Médecine Jacques-Lisfranc, Université de Saint-Etienne, France.
Pozzetto
B
B
Gaudin
O G
OG
Hafid
J
J
Mbida
A D
AD
Ros
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000372:Agglutination Tests / Q000379:methods; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003168:Complement Fixation Tests / Q000379:methods; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000379:methods*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting / Q000379:methods*; D007163:Immunosorbent Techniques; D007223:Infant; D007841:Latex Fixation Tests / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009177:Mycoplasma pneumoniae / Q000276:immunology*
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial