title: Diagnosis of whooping cough--a comparison of culture, immunofluorescence and serology with ELISA.
abstract: Three methods for diagnosis of whooping cough--culture, immunofluorescence (IF) technique on nasopharyngeal secretion and serology with ELISA--were compared. 52 patients with symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection, which could not exclude pertussis as a differential diagnosis, were investigated. Pertussis infection was confirmed in 30 patients. Of these 16 (53%) were found by culture, 19 (63%) by IF and 28 (93%) by serology. It is concluded that IF analysis of nasopharyngeal secretion is a valuable tool for rapid diagnosis of whooping cough with a sensitivity similar to that of culture. Serodiagnosis with ELISA added a significant number of positive patients in which culture and IF were negative.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D001886:Bordetella pertussis / Q000276:immunology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000032:analysis; D007223:Infant; D014917:Whooping Cough / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M