The recent article by Mazzulli et al. (4) further demonstrates the increasing interest of virologists and microbiologists in the cytomegalovirus antigenemia (CMV-Ag) assay. Mazzulli and coworkers report that the CMV-Ag assay is more sensitive than the shell vial-indirect immunofluorescence assay (SVAIFA), perhaps implying that the direct antigen detection assay should be considered the method o...

AIMS (1) To assess a range of intravenous immunoglobulin products for atypical classical antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (C-ANCA) staining and to determine if this is present in patients treated with high dose intravenous immunoglobulin (2 g/kg/month) and replacement doses (200 mg/kg fortnightly); (2) using the United Kingdom national external quality assessment scheme (NEQAS), to determine...

Four stains for the detection of Pneumocystis carinii in respiratory specimens were compared for sensitivity, specificity, preparation time, and ease of interpretation. One hundred specimens were collected. Of these, 50 were induced sputum specimens and 50 were bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. All specimens were stained with Diff-Quik (DQ) (a modified Giemsa stain), a quick silver stain, and direc...

The use of an adequate concentration of Triton X-100 enhanced immunomagnetic separation of Coxiella burnetii from milk. PCR-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (PCR-ELISA) could detect coxiellas more sensitively than could conventional PCR. PCR-ELISA is therefore thought to be suitable for the simultaneous assay of a large number of samples. However, the number of cows from which raw milk tested ...

A conventional indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and an anticomplement indirect immunofluorescence assay (ACIF) for detecting serum antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi in humans were evaluated during a prevalence survey in northern California. Sera obtained from 119 current or former residents of an area in which Lyme disease is endemic were split and tested by the IFA in two laboratories ...

Human cytomegalovirus induces the appearance of immediate early antigens in infected cells 1 h after infection. This provided the basis for the development of a rapid neutralization assay for cytomegalovirus antibody which was able to yield results within a single day. Indirect immunofluorescence to visualize immediate early antigen-positive cells was applied to the rapid determination of cytom...

Since the discovery of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in 1983, there has been a proliferation of diagnostic tests. These assays can be used to detect the presence of HIV antibody, HIV antigen, HIV ribonucleic and deoxyribonucleic acids, and HIV reverse transcriptase. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, Western blot, radioimmunopre...

The antibody response against a spirochetal strain isolated from Swedish Ixodes ricinus ticks was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and indirect immunofluorescence assay of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum specimens from 45 patients with chronic meningitis. Samples of CSF, serum, or both from patients with various infections of the central nervous system, multiple scler...