Rapid diagnosis of typhoid fever by co-agglutination in an Indian hospital.
Detection of Salmonella typhi infection by a co-agglutination assay for specific O, H and Vi antigens and by blood culture were compared for 110 patients with suspected typhoid fever. Blood cultures were positive for S. typhi in 25.5% of patients. Co-agglutination tests with patients' serum and with blood culture supernates gave positive results in 70.9% and 67.3% of cases respectively. S. typhi antigens Hd and O9 were detected in patients' serum by co-agglutination in 96.4% of blood culture-positive, and 62.2% of blood culture-negative patients. Co-agglutination results were uniformly negative with serum samples from a control group of 50 healthy individuals, 20 patients with febrile non-typhoid infectious disease and 20 patients with non-infectious febrile disease. Of the 25 patients with suspected typhoid fever who had not received prior antibiotic treatment, 88% yielded positive blood cultures and 96% gave positive results in serum co-agglutination tests. By contrast, of the 85 patients who had received prior antibiotics, only 7% yielded positive blood cultures, but 63.5% gave positive results in serum co-agglutination tests. Co-agglutination tests with serum offer a simple, rapid, sensitive, specific and economical method for the early diagnosis of typhoid fever.
Mukherjee
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C
Department of Microbiology, J.N. Medical College, Aligarh, India.
Malik
A
A
Khan
H M
HM
Malik
A
A
D000372:Agglutination Tests; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D012485:Salmonella typhi / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013997:Time Factors; D014435:Typhoid Fever / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial