title: A comparison of immuncapture agglutination and ELISA methods in serological diagnosis of brucellosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Different serological tests are used in serologic diagnosis of brucellosis. The most widely used of these are Standard Tube Agglutination and Coombs anti-brucella tests. Whereas ELISA Ig M and Ig G tests have been in use for a long time, immuncapture agglutination test has been recently introduced and used in serological diagnosis. The aim of this study was to compare diagnostic values of ELISA Ig M and Ig G and immuncapture agglutination tests with Coombs anti-brucella test.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sera from 200 patients with presumptive diagnosis of brucellosis were included into the study. Coombs anti-brucella test, ELISA Ig M and Ig G tests and Immuncapture test were investigated in these sera. Then, sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive and positive predictive values were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive and positive predictive values were found to be 90.6%, 76.3%, 94.2%, and 65.9% respectively for the Immuncapture test, whereas they were found to be 73.7%, 58.9%, 84.2%, and 42.8% for Ig G and 72.2%, 67.8%, 85.2%, and 48.7% for Ig M. The Immuncapture test was found to be compatible with ELISA Ig M and Ig G tests but it was statistically incompatible with Coombs anti-brucella test.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Immuncapture agglutination test yields similar results to those of Coombs anti-brucella test. This test is a useful test by virtue of the fact that it determines blocking antibodies in the diagnosis and follow-up of brucellosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Selcuk University Meram Faculty of Medicine, Konya, Turkey. mehmetozdem@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Özdemir
authors.forename: Bahadır
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Feyzioğlu
authors.forename: Muhammed Güzel
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Kurtoğlu
authors.forename: Metin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Doğan
authors.forename: Hatice Türk
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Dağı
authors.forename: Şerife
authors.initials: Ş
authors.lastname: Yüksekkaya
authors.forename: Recep
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Keşli
authors.forename: Bülent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Baysal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000372:Agglutination Tests / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D000915:Antibody Affinity / Q000276:immunology; D002002:Brucella / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003298:Coombs Test; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M