title: Laboratory and epidemiologic evaluation of an enzyme immunoassay for antibodies to HTLV-III.
abstract: The enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for antibody to human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III) were rapidly adopted for screening donated blood and plasma. To evaluate the significance of a positive EIA reaction, test performance was examined in a blood bank screening program. Specimens were tested by EIA, Western blot assay, and HTLV-III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV) culture. The EIA was positive in 0.25% of 67 190 blood donations. Specimens were categorized and 57.3% had low (weak) reactivity, 12.7% had moderate reactivity, and 30.0% had high reactivity. Highly reactive specimens were strongly associated with a positive Western blot or culture (86.7%) in contrast to moderately and weakly reactive specimens (1.9%). Twenty-five of 29 donors interviewed with a highly reactive EIA had risk factors for HTLV-III/LAV infection. Risk factors were not identified for 74 of 75 interviewed donors with specimens of lower reactivity. The minimum calculated specificity was 99.82%. The use of the HTLV-III EIA has virtually eliminated the use of blood and plasma from HTLV-III/LAV infected donors.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D001782:Blood Donors; D017977:Deltaretrovirus / Q000254:growth & development; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D015483:HIV Antibodies; D006801:Humans; D007120:Immunochemistry; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D012306:Risk; D014776:Virus Cultivation
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D015483:HIV Antibodies