Agglutination of Eubacterium and Peptostreptococcus species as a diagnostic test for Crohn's disease.

The anaerobic fecal flora of patients with Crohn's disease has been found to differ from the flora of healthy subjects by higher numbers of anaerobic gram-negative rods and gram-positive coccoid rods. Agglutinating antibodies against strains of coccoid rods, belonging to species of Eubacterium and Peptostreptococcus were detected in much higher percentages of sera from patients with Crohn's disease than in those from patients with ulcerative colitis, and healthy subjects. On the basis of the results of agglutination reactions with four strains, the probability of Crohn's disease can be estimated. In this paper, the background of the test ist described and its use and limitations are reviewed.