title: Leptospirosis serodiagnosis by the microscopic agglutination test.
abstract: The microscopic agglutination test (MAT) is the gold standard for sero-diagnosis of leptospirosis because of its unsurpassed diagnostic specificity. It uses panels of live leptospires, ideally recent isolates, representing the circulating serovars from the area where the patient became infected. A dilution series of the patient's serum is mixed with a suspension of live leptospires in microtiter plates. After incubating for about 2 hr at 30°C, results are read under the dark-field microscope. The titer is the last dilution in which ≥ 50% of the leptospires have remained agglutinated. Seroconversion or ≥ 4-fold titer rise in paired sera is consistent with current leptospirosis. The significance of a titer in a single sample depends on the frequency of residual titers due to past infections and cross-reacting other diseases in the population. Full standardization of the MAT is not possible, but quality assurance can be achieved by participation in the international MAT proficiency testing scheme.
authors: Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), KIT Biomedical Research, WHO/FAO/OIE and National Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Leptospirosis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Marga G A
authors: MG
authors: Goris
authors: Rudy A
authors: RA
authors: Hartskeerl
mesh_terms: D000372:Agglutination Tests / Q000379:methods*; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007919:Leptospira / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007922:Leptospirosis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D012698:Serologic Tests / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial
keywords: MAT; agglutination; antibodies; leptospirosis; serology