title: Direct agglutination test (DAT): improvement of biosafety for laboratory diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis.
abstract: In this study, the direct agglutination test (DAT), using 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME), kaolin or N-acetylcysteine (NAC) as sample diluents, was used to assay 89 samples from visceral leishmaniasis (VL) patients and 130 samples from patients with other diseases and healthy individuals. Maintaining a cut-off of 1:100, the DAT assays with 2-ME, kaolin or NAC presented sensitivities of 94.4%, 95.5% and 100% (P = 0.09) and specificities of 99.2%, 100% and 97.7% (P = 0.17), respectively. Based on these results, we suggest that NAC can be used as a replacement for 2-ME in the DAT, increasing biosafety in the diagnosis of VL.
authors: Clinical Research Laboratory, Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou-FIOCRUZ, Av. Augusto de Lima 1715, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors: Edward
authors: E
authors: Oliveira
authors: Soraya Wilke
authors: SW
authors: Saliba
authors: Camila Filizzola de
authors: CF
authors: Andrade
authors: Ana
authors: A
authors: Rabello