Techniques for typing Herpesvirus hominis antibody: a comparison of inhibition of peroxidase-labelled antibody staining with inhibition of indirect haemagglutination and with microneutralisation.

A new technique based upon the inhibition of the peroxidase-labelled antibody staining (PLAS) has been used to type Herpesvirus hominis (HVH) antibodies in four groups of human sera taken from patients with one or both types of HVH infection and in mixtures of different proportions of type 1 and type 2 antisera. The results were compared with those of the microneutralisation (MN) test and the indirect haemagglutination (IHA) inhibition test. The sensitivity and specificity of the three methods were identical for sera containing only one type of HVH antibody. The MN test was slightly more sensitive than the other tests for detecting small amounts of HVH-1 antibody mixed with large amounts of HVH-2 antibody. Nevertheless, the PLAS inhibition technique was far more rapid and it would seem a satisfactory alternative to the IHA inhibition test for HVH antibody typing.