title: Detection of antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) with the particle agglutination test.
abstract: This study was designed to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the particle agglutination test (PA) for antibody detection and to determine whether it is possible to use this test as a screening routine for anti-human immunodeficiency virus type I antibodies instead of the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Serum samples were collected from 5,142 subjects and tested with the above two tests. A total of 83 samples were observed to be ELISA-positive. However, only 36 were found to be seropositive by the PA test. These samples were then confirmed by the Western blot analysis and 28 were positive for HIV-1, 33 were negative and 22 gave indeterminate results. The most common indeterminate band was p15/17 and the p24 band came next. The sensitivity and specificity of the PA test were 100% and 99.9%. The results indicate that the PA test is not only a convenient technique but also has a high sensitivity and specificity. It can be used as a primary screening test for antibody against HIV-1 instead of the ELISA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chiang
mesh_terms: D000372:Agglutination Tests; D015153:Blotting, Western; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques
chemical_list: D015483:HIV Antibodies