Comparison of latex agglutination and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for detecting human rotavirus in stool specimens.

One hundred and forty five stool samples from children below 2 years of age, hospitalized with diarrhea were tested for rotavirus antigen by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), latex agglutination test using commercially available kit Rotastat (Ranbaxy Diagnostic, India) and by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Twenty eight samples were positive for the virus antigen by all the three assay systems. The sensitivity of latex agglutination (LA) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) was 91.4% (32/35) and 80% (28/35), respectively; the corresponding specificity was 98.18% (108/110) and 100% (110/110), respectively. Latex agglutination was the least complex, required the least amount of apparatus and provided a result within a short time. It showed a high specificity and a reasonable amount of sensitivity and the results correlated well with ELISA and PAGE.