Comparison of indirect double antibody and double antibody sandwich ELISA techniques with latex agglutination test for the diagnosis of human rotavirus infection.

94 faecal samples from infants and children suffering of acute gastroenteritis were investigated for rotavirus by indirect double antibody sandwich ELISA kit (WHO, Geneva), Rotavirus ELISA kit (DAKOPATTS A/S, Copenhagen) and Rotalex latex-agglutination kit (Orion Diagnostica, Helsinki). The ELISA techniques gave almost identical results and seemed to be of same sensitivity and specificity. Rotalex agglutination had an overall agreement of 88% with ELISA. It is concluded that strongly positive reactions found by Rotalex may be regarded as true positive reactions, whereas samples producing weakly positive and/or negative reactions should be retested in a more specific and sensitive assay, such as enzyme linked immunosorbent-assay (ELISA).