Specificity and Sensitivity of the Streptozyme Test for the Detection of Streptococcal Antibodies

Abstract

A comparison between the results of the streptozyme hemagglutination test and serological titers for anti-streptolysin 0 (ASO), anti-hyaluronidase (AH), anti-deoxyribonuclease B (ADN-B), and anti-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotidase (ANAD) was made in two groups of human sera. In one group, serological titers for all the four antibodies were lower than the threshold of sensitization reported by the producing firm. In the second group, the titer of at least one of the four antibodies was equal to or higher than the threshold. False-positive and false-negative reactions occur with those sera when one or more antibody titer is at or near the threshold of the test as described by the manufacturer. The test was positive for all sera where either the ASO was greater than 166 or the ANAD was greater than 270, and for 98% of the sera with ADN-B greater than 360. It is, therefore, concluded that the streptozyme test can be used as an adjunct to the clinical diagnosis of streptococcal infections and their nonsuppurative sequelae.

Impetigo: An Overview

“…The streptozyme test measures more than five antibodies to streptococcal antigens, including ASO, anti-DNAase B, and antihyaluronidase. When only one of the antibodies is minimally elevated, however, false negative results may be obtained (60). In addition, the combination of individual ASO and anti-DNAase B tests is more effective than the streptozyme test in detecting preceding GABHS infection (61).…”

Comparison of three rapid methods for detection of antibodies to streptolysin O and DNase B

“…We did not evaluate lot-to-lot variation in our study, since only a single lot was used for all testing. Earlier studies on Streptozyme also showed good performance for detecting ASO and high ADB titers (6,8).…”

“…We chose three systems for evaluation. The Streptozyme test has been evaluated by a number of investigators (3,(5)(6)(7)(8); however, there is limited information on the LeapStrep test (4). Published information on the Check-Spectra test is not available.…”

Quantitative evaluation of variation in composition of the streptozyme agglutination reagent for detection of antibodies to group A streptococcal extracellular antigens

“…It is a relatively simple-to-perform slide agglutination test, and since its introduction in the early 1970s, it has become one of the most widely used tests in clinical and hospital laboratories for the determination of group A streptococcal antibodies. This agglutination test has been compared with the more conventional neutralization tests for streptococcal antibodies such as the anti-streptolysin O and the anti-deoxyribonuclease B tests (2,5,7,9); yet because the Streptozyme reagent contains multiple nonpurified streptococcal antigens coated onto ovine erythrocytes, the ability to standardize the reagent has been questioned (5,6,8). Preliminary work from this laboratory has suggested reagent variation from lot to lot (5,6).…”