Investigation of ELISA and PCR for Diagnosis of Infectious Mononucleosis

Background and Aims: Infectious mononucleosis (IM)is the clinical manifestation of primary infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Humans are the only known reservoir of EBV. Regarding the problems in diagnosis of the disease, the purpose of this study was to assess Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as a diagnostic tool for this disease. Materials and Methods: 50 samples were collected from the suspicious patients with EBV and 50 samples from the healthy individuals as the control and both techniques were applied for them. Results: The results showed that 76% of the patients and 14% of the control samples had EBV DNA in serum with PCR. Statistical analysis showed significant difference between the patient and the control samples for infection with EBV (P < 0.0001). Samples were classified into three groups according to the ELISA that were acute phase (20%), recent infection or convalescence phase (14%) and past infection (66%), respectively. Conclusions: Comparing the two methods, the results of the ELISA test indicated that ELISA would be the best method to be used for the diagnosis of IM. Our results suggest that serology may be more sensitive and could be performed as the initial screening test for acute EBV infection. Although, the PCR test is routinely used as an accurate method for detection of the pathogens with a higher specificity and sensitivity comparing the immunoassay, in IM, ELISA seems to be the best method for detecting antibodies against EBV.