Dengue is the most important arboviral disease transmitted to humans. In our laboratory, we have been working on the standardization of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnosis of this disease. In this work, we compared five commercial kits regularly used on reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) protocols: two Two-Step kits (SuperScript II RT/Super Mix kit and reverse tr...

We describe a comparative evaluation of commercial fluorescent treponemal antibody-absorbed test kits, using 150 selected patient sera. The ability of the test kits to detect reactive sera varied from 82.5 to 95%; that for nonreactive sera varied from 80.9 to 96.4%. Reproducibility of reactive and nonreactive results, measured by between-assay and within-assay studies, averaged 42%. The results...

Early pregnancy diagnosis in dairy goats and cows was studied using enzyme immunoassays (EIA) to measure progesterone concentrations in whole milk samples collected approximately 3 weeks after mating. Two qualitative on-farm assay kits and 2 quantitative assay kits, all designed for use in the dairy cow, were tested for their accuracy with goats milk samples. Accuracy of diagnosis of goat pregn...

In this study, we evaluated whether five rapid antigen detection kits for human influenza could be used for the diagnosis of equine influenza (EI). Limiting dilution analyses showed that Directigen Flu A+B and ESPLINE INFLUENZA A&B-N had the highest sensitivities to equine-2 influenza viruses (EIVs) among the kits investigated. From the results of virus detection in nasal swabs taken from horse...

To the Editor: We write to support Hurt et al. regarding the urgent necessity of point-of-care (POC) test kits with enhanced sensitivity for influenza diagnosis. Recent evaluations of three POC tests, the Binax Now, BD, Directigen EZ and Quidel Quick Vue, with stock viruses and clinical specimens have been enlightening. Although at high virus concentration they matched real-time RT-PCR results ...

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is the etiologic agent of a variety of gastrointestinal disorders. The rationale of the current study is to evaluate six enzyme immunoassays for detection of anti-H. pylori immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgA in Jordanian patients. Biopsy specimens and blood samples were obtained from patients underwent the endoscopy unit at Al-Bashir hospital in Jordan. The serum sam...

BACKGROUND Gastrin measurements are performed primarily for the diagnosis of gastrin-producing tumors, gastrinomas, which cause the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (ZES). Gastrin circulates as several bioactive peptides, however, and the peptide pattern in gastrinoma patients often deviates from normal. Therefore, it is necessary to measure all forms of gastrin. CONTENT Only immunoassays are usefu...