For the serodiagnosis of syphilis a quantitative passive agglutination (MCA-TP) test for antibodies to Treponema pallidum was performed with chemically stable microcapsules with no antigenic activity instead of with conventional sheep erythrocytes. The microcapsules were easily sensitised with the antigen of sonicated Treponema pallidum by treatment with glutaraldehyde. Compared with the Trepon...

Immunomodulatory activity of aqueous extract of Achillea wilhelmsii (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg body weight for 5 days) was evaluated on body weight, relative organ weight, delayed type of hypersensitivity (DTH) response and haemagglutination titre (HT) in female Swiss albino mice. No significant body weight gain differences were recorded in various groups of animals. Significant increase in relative...

The treponemal haemagglutination (THA) test has been used for 11 years as a routine test for syphilis at a central serology laboratory. Among patients with untreated early syphilis the antibodies detected by the THA test usually appeared later or were of relatively lower titre than those detected by the reagin tests. This finding was confirmed by follow up of patients and by replies to question...

A 15-year-old girl, who was evaluated for arthralgia of knees, was diagnosed as having brucellosis by serum agglutination and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay tests. Physical examination of the patient revealed massive hepatomegaly. Abdominal ultrasonography and computerised tomography showed a single large cystic lesion of the liver. The echinococcus indirect haemagglutination was positive at...

The immunomodulatory effect of aqueous extract of Acacia catechu commonly known as Katha or Karangali was studied at two doses of 5 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg orally. The effect was studied in neutrophil adhesion test, mice lethality test, carbon clearance assay, cyclophosphamide induced neutropenia, serum immunoglobulin levels and the heamagglutination test. Acacia catechu extract showed an increase i...

A Vero E6 cell culture isolate of Tula virus (TUL), a hantavirus first detected in European common voles (hficrotus arvalis and hr. rossiaemeridionolis) by RT-PCR was obtained after initial passaging of TULinfected vole lung samples in laboratory-colonized hl. arvalis. TUL was defined as a classical serotype by a cross-focus-reduction neutralization test (FRNT) and was also shown to be distinct...

Red cells coated with lipopolysaccharides from three different strains of Neisseria gonorhoeae have been used as antigens in a haemagglutination test for gonococcal antibodies. For each strain the geometric mean titre in sera from 50 male and 25 female patients was significantly higher than that in 50 normal controls. The most useful smooth strain, G1, picked out 84% of females and 46% of males...

Tests were carried out to determine the aetiology of the encephalitis, including serological and other tests for the encephalitic flaviviruses. Polymerase chain reaction tests on CSF were negative and attempts at virus isolation were unsuccessful. However, serum collected on day 4 (and again on days 6 and 13) was strongly reactive by enzyme immunoassay for IgM to the encephalitic flavivirus gro...

Using the leucocyte migration inhibition (LIF) test we looked for evidence of cell-mediated hypersensitivity against myoglobin in 8 patients with polymyositis (PM) or dermatomyositis (DM). The migration index for PM-DM patients was 47.5 +/- 17%, while in the controls the index was 86 +/- 12% (p less than 0.001). The presence of serum antibodies against myoglobin was also investigated by passive...

BACKGROUND Early outbreaks of the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus predominantly involved young children, who fuelled transmission through spread in homes and schools. Seroprevalence studies conducted on stored serum collections indicated low levels of antibody to the novel strain in this age group, leading many to recommend priority immunisation of paediatric populations. OBJECTIVES In...