Coovadia Y M, Solwa Z
S Afr Med J. 1987 Apr 4;71(7):442-4.
Three commercially available latex agglutination tests and the Gram stain were evaluated for their ability to detect Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens from 160 patients suspected of having meningitis. Bactigen detected 86% of all culture-positive CSF specimens, whereas Wellcogen detected 80%, Bio Merieux 59% and Gram stain 94%. Bactigen and Wellcogen detected 84% of cases of meningitis caused by H. influenzae, whereas Bio Merieux detected 53% and Gram stain 90%. Of the 27 cases of Strept. pneumoniae meningitis, all were detected by Gram stain, 96% by Bactigen, 89% by Wellcogen and 74% by Bio Merieux. For N. meningitidis, which included four isolates of group B and one group W135, detection was 80% with the Gram stain, 40% with Bactigen and 20% with Wellcogen. False-positive results were observed with Bactigen and Bio Merieux respectively on 5% of culture-positive CSF specimens for organisms other than the test organisms. With the exception of faulty batches of individual kits of Bactigen (H. influenzae B) and Wellcogen (Strept. pneumoniae) respectively, false-positives were not obtained on the 63 culture-negative CSF samples. Bactigen and Wellcogen were equally efficacious in detecting H. influenzae B. Bactigen was marginally superior to Wellcogen for the detection of Strept. pneumoniae. Bio Merieux was the least sensitive of the three latex agglutination kits tested. The Gram stain was found to be at least as sensitive or superior to latex agglutination for detecting H. influenzae B, Strept. pneumoniae and N. meningitidis in CSF specimens from patients with bacteriologically proven meningitis.
对三种市售乳胶凝集试验和革兰氏染色法检测160例疑似脑膜炎患者脑脊液（CSF）标本中流感嗜血杆菌、肺炎链球菌和脑膜炎奈瑟菌的能力进行了评估。Bactigen检测出所有培养阳性CSF标本的86%，而Wellcogen检测出80%，生物梅里埃检测出59%，革兰氏染色法检测出94%。Bactigen和Wellcogen检测出由流感嗜血杆菌引起的脑膜炎病例的84%，而生物梅里埃检测出53%，革兰氏染色法检测出90%。在27例肺炎链球菌脑膜炎病例中，革兰氏染色法全部检测出，Bactigen检测出96%，Wellcogen检测出89%，生物梅里埃检测出74%。对于脑膜炎奈瑟菌，其中包括4株B群菌株和1株W135群菌株，革兰氏染色法的检测率为80%，Bactigen为40%，Wellcogen为20%。在检测除测试菌以外的其他微生物时，分别在5%的培养阳性CSF标本中观察到Bactigen和生物梅里埃出现假阳性结果。除了分别有一批有缺陷的Bactigen（B型流感嗜血杆菌）和Wellcogen（肺炎链球菌）试剂盒外，在63份培养阴性的CSF样本中未出现假阳性。Bactigen和Wellcogen在检测B型流感嗜血杆菌方面同样有效。在检测肺炎链球菌方面，Bactigen略优于Wellcogen。生物梅里埃是所测试的三种乳胶凝集试剂盒中灵敏度最低的。对于经细菌学证实患有脑膜炎患者的CSF标本，发现革兰氏染色法在检测B型流感嗜血杆菌、肺炎链球菌和脑膜炎奈瑟菌方面至少与乳胶凝集法一样灵敏或更优。
