title: Serotyping of Streptococcus pneumoniae by coagglutination with 12 pooled antisera.
abstract: We report on the performance of a recently introduced commercial chessboard method using 12 antisera, in comparison with that of the 55-antiserum panel used in determining the serogroups and types (SGTs) of Streptococcus pneumoniae, both of which were carried out by a coagglutination technique. Of a total of 150 strains of S. pneumoniae studied, 135 (90%) belonged to the SGTs represented in the 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine; of these, 130 (96.3%) were identified as the same SGTs by both typing methods. The remaining five strains showed cross-reactivity with more than two pools by the chessboard method, but could be assigned to a single SGT by the Quellung test. The 96.3% concordance of the chessboard method suggests it can be adopted for determination of the SGTs of S. pneumoniae in laboratories.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Microbiology, Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore, India. mkl@micro.cmc.ernet.in
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Lalitha
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Steinhoff
mesh_terms: D000372:Agglutination Tests / Q000379:methods; D003429:Cross Reactions; D006801:Humans; D007106:Immune Sera / Q000276:immunology; D012703:Serotyping / Q000379:methods*; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000145:classification* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D007106:Immune Sera