A study on performance of two serological assays for diagnosis of leprosy patients.
We compared 2 serological tests for the diagnosis of leprosy to test their performances. The tests include the serum antibody competition test (SACT) for the detection of antibodies to Mycobacterium leprae-specific epitope on 35 KDa protein molecule, and M. leprae gelatin particle agglutination assay (MLPA), for the detection of antiphenolic glycolipid-1 (PGL-1) antibodies. In both the assays a higher serological positivity was seen amongst multibacillary (MB) patients than those in paucibacillary (PB) patients. Taking all leprosy patients together, the sensitivity of SACT (59.7%) was observed to be statistically comparable to that of MLPA (66.9%). However, SACT proved to be more specific (97.7%) than MLPA (75.0%). The agreement between these 2 assays was observed to be moderate.
Parkash
O
O
Central JALMA Institute for Leprosy, Tajganj, Agra, India.
Chaturvedi
V
V
Girdhar
B K
BK
Sengupta
U
U
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007918:Leprosy / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000276:immunology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012698:Serologic Tests / Q000379:methods
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial