A latex agglutination test (LX) using antisera prepared against Nebraska calf diarrhea virus (NCDV) is described for the detection of rotavirus in stool of children with acute gastroenteritis. The test was compared with electron microscopy (EM) and radioimmunoassay (RIA) with 100 stools positive or negative for rotavirus. Out of 53 stools positive in RIA or EM, 49 were positive in LX and 4 were negative. Two specimens negative in EM and RIA were falsely positive in LX. The method was also tested in two clinical series with 115 stools from 101 children. Altogether 67/115 stools were positive in RIA, and 62/115 in LX. Out of 7 stools with contradictory results, 6 were negative in LX but positive in RIA, and 1 was positive in LX but negative in RIA. The results indicate that the LX is suitable for rapid screening of rotavirus gastroenteritis in clinical practice.
RAUNO MANTYJARVI, MD, professor of clinical microbiology in Finland was similar to that in a London hospital just before plain trimethoprim was registered for use in Britain.
Circulating antibodies against Faenia rectivirgula, Thermoactinomyces candidus, T. vulgaris and Aspergillus fumigatus were studied in the sera of 14 clinically proven farmer's lung patients and 10 normal controls using three immunological methods. These methods were agar gel double diffusion (DD), biotin-avidin-linked immunosorbent assay (BALISA) and dot-immunobinding assay (DIBA). Agar gel diffusion, the least sensitive of the three methods, failed to detect antibodies in some of the patients, while BALISA detected antibodies even in the normal controls. However, the sensitivity of dot-immunobinding assay was in between DD and BALISA while the specificity was comparable to DD to all the antibodies except against A. fumigatus antigens. Dot-immunobinding assay gave faster results than DD and the blots can be stored as record for longer periods of time without fading.
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