Park Sang-Hee, Lee Yoo-Hoon, Chu Hyuk, Hwang Seon-Do, Hwang Kyu-Jam, Choi Hee-Yeol, Park Mi-Yeoun
Division of Zoonoses, Korea National Institute of Health, Osong, Korea.
Osong Public Health Res Perspect. 2012 Mar;3(1):19-23. doi: 10.1016/j.phrp.2012.01.003.
Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonoses in the world, and occurs mainly in farmers, slaughterhouse workers, and veterinarians via direct or indirect contact with infected animals or their products. The clinical symptoms of human brucellosis are nonspecific, such as fever, headache, chills, and sweating. Diagnosis and treatment of brucellosis requires laboratory tests. Although the serum tube agglutination test (SAT) is the standardized gold method, it is laborious, time consuming, and requires a number of reagents. A microagglutination test (MAT) variant of the SAT or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is recommended for serological diagnoses. For the simple and rapid diagnosis of brucellosis, the MAT was standardized using samples for the SAT to define positive and negative categories, and we then compared the sensitivity and specificity of the MAT and ELISA.
Thirty SAT-positive sera and 60 SAT-negative sera were used in this study. Antibody titers of ≥1:160 were considered positive readings in both the SAT and MAT. Brucella abortus antigens and Brucella-positive control antiserum were used in the SAT and MAT. ELISAs of IgM and IgG were performed according to the manufacturers' instructions.
The titers of the MAT differed according to antigen concentration. The optimal concentration of B abortus antigen was determined to compare the sensitivity and specificity between the MAT and SAT. The sensitivity and specificity of the MAT were 93.3% and 96.7%, respectively, for IgG with reference to ELISA, and 96.7% and 98.3%, respectively, for IgM.
The optimal concentration of antigen for the MAT was 1:10. The MAT is less time consuming and requires less antigen and serum than the SAT. The results of the MAT showed good agreement with those of ELISA. The results of this study suggest that the MAT could be useful for diagnosis of brucellosis.
布鲁氏菌病是世界上最常见的人畜共患病之一，主要通过直接或间接接触受感染动物或其产品，在农民、屠宰场工人和兽医中发病。人类布鲁氏菌病的临床症状不具有特异性，如发热、头痛、寒战和出汗。布鲁氏菌病的诊断和治疗需要实验室检测。虽然血清试管凝集试验（SAT）是标准化的金标准方法，但它费力、耗时且需要多种试剂。推荐采用SAT的微量凝集试验（MAT）变体或酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）进行血清学诊断。为了简单快速地诊断布鲁氏菌病，使用SAT的样本对MAT进行标准化以定义阳性和阴性类别，然后我们比较了MAT和ELISA的敏感性和特异性。
本研究使用了30份SAT阳性血清和60份SAT阴性血清。SAT和MAT中抗体效价≥1:160被视为阳性读数。SAT和MAT中使用了流产布鲁氏菌抗原和布鲁氏菌阳性对照抗血清。IgM和IgG的ELISA按照制造商的说明进行。
MAT的效价因抗原浓度而异。确定了流产布鲁氏菌抗原的最佳浓度以比较MAT和SAT之间的敏感性和特异性。以ELISA为参照，MAT对于IgG的敏感性和特异性分别为93.3%和96.7%，对于IgM分别为96.7%和98.3%。
MAT的最佳抗原浓度为1:10。与SAT相比，MAT耗时更少，所需抗原和血清更少。MAT的结果与ELISA的结果显示出良好的一致性。本研究结果表明MAT可用于布鲁氏菌病的诊断。
