Biotin is an essential vitamin that binds streptavidin or avidin with high affinity and specificity. As biotin is a small molecule that can be linked to proteins without affecting their biological activity, biotinylation is applied widely in biochemical assays. In our laboratory, IgM enzyme immuno assays (EIAs) of µ-capture format have been set up against many viruses, using as antigen biotinyl...

The clinical value of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of anti-HBc IgM was evaluated by testing 202 sera from acute viral hepatitis B (AVHB), hepatitis B (HB), chronic hepatitis (CAH), chronic liver disease (CLD), cirrhosis, primary hepatoma, HBsAg carrier, acute viral hepatitis A (AVHA), hepatitis A (HA), non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis and miscellaneous conditions ...

Methods Our goal was to study the relationship between pregnant women diagnosed with acute toxoplasmosis and the presence of this parasite in their house pets. Using chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLIA) we determined the presence of toxoplasma IgM and IgG antibodies and by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) toxoplasma IgA antibodies. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine ...

A rapid assay to detect antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) in serum and two rapid/simple assays to detect hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in whole blood/serum were evaluated for their accuracy and suitability at the National Blood Transfusion Service, Harare, Zimbabwe. For this purpose, a total of 206 sera (196 routinely collected and 10 frozen) were tested using the HCV-SPOT (Genelabs D...

Diagnosis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection is important due to its variable clinical manifestations and absence of response to beta-lactams. Introduction of enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for serologic diagnosis of M. pneumoniae has made it possible to separate the analyses of specific IgG and IgM antibodies. We compared four different commercial EIAs, ImmunoWELL IgG, IgM (GenBio), Medac IgG, IgA...

Three hundred fifty five pregnant women were tested for IgM and IgG type of antibodies by Enzyme Immuno Assay (EIA). Sero-positivity for IgM and IgG antibodies were 13% and 29% respectively. Of 212 pregnant women with abortion, 39 (18%) and 80 (38%) were sero-positive and of 143 pregnant women with normal reproductive performance, 7 (5%) and 23 (16%) were positive for IgM and IgG respectively. ...

Background Central nervous system (CNS) histoplasmosis is a life-threatening condition and represents a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Isolation of Histoplasma capsulatum from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or brain tissue is diagnostic; however, culture is insensitive and slow growth may result in significant treatment delay. We performed a retrospective multicenter study to evaluate the sen...

The ability to discriminate between primary Toxoplasma gondii infection acquired in early pregnancy and infection that occurred prior to pregnancy was assessed by an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to determine the avidity of toxoplasma-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG). The results were compared to those of the Platelia Toxo-IgM EIA and the dye test. The mean IgG avidity of 73 serum samples collected w...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends a 2-tier serologic approach to Lyme disease laboratory diagnosis, comprised of an initial serum enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for antibody to Borrelia burgdorferi followed by supplementary IgG and IgM Western blotting of EIA-positive or -equivocal samples. Western blot accuracy is limited by subjective interpretation of weakly posit...

A new IgM capture enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was compared with the 19S(IgM) fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption (19S(IgM)FTA-ABS) test for detecting IgM antibodies to treponemes. Serum samples from 180 people, 109 with various stages of untreated syphilis, 45 with treated syphilis, and 26 non-infected, were investigated. In all diagnostic groups of syphilis the reactivity ...