In our present issue we publish two articles in which the value of a complement-fixation test in early diagnosis of kala-azar is stressed. The antigen used is that of Witebsky, Klingenstein and Kuhn prepared from the tubercle bacillus, and originally intended for complement-fixation tests in tuberculosis. In tuberculosis, however, the results are very poor. Work in South America, however, revea...

The methods commonly used for human brucellosis serological testing are agglutination tests and the complement fixation test (CFT). Among the newer serological tests, primary binding assays were developed to improve sensitivity and specificity. The competitive enzyme immunoassay (CELISA) for the detection of serum antibody to Brucella is a multispecies assay which appears to be capable of diffe...

The immunoperoxidase antibody (IPA) technique was used to develop two new tests for serodiagnosis of respiratory syncytial virus infections: a microneutralization test based on the reduction of the number of infected cells and an IPA test for determination of virus-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG). Neutralizing antibody was determined both in the presence and absence of complement. In a group of...

Three serological procedures, the agar-gel precipitin inhibition, the complement fixation, and the indirect hemagglutination tests, were used to detect and measure antibody to Yersinia pestis in the sera from 383 individuals. Although all three tests were useful in detecting plague antibody, the most reliable and sensitive test procedure was indirect hemagglutination.

When brucellosis false positive serological reactions happen in cattle, the serial use of pairs of specificity-correlated serological tests (rose bengal, complement fixation, competitive ELISA) results in specificities lower than expected. In this situation, highly specific tests, such as the indirect ELISA used alone, may be more adequate than serial testing.

Hitherto in poliomyelitis complement-fixation tests on human sera the antigenic material has usually been derived from tissue cultures of polio viruses. Despite high infectivity titres, antigens from this source are weak in capacity to fix complement (Selzer, 1958). Concentration of tissue culture antigens improves the complement-fixing power but frequently produces anti-complementary effects. ...

During the period June 1967 to May 1972, viral tests were performed upon 1195 inpatients aged 12 and over in the Brompton Hospital. The overall diagnostic rate was 21-5%, comparing 9-3% by isolation and 14-9% by complement fixation (6-5% by four-fold rises in titre in paired sera, 8-4% by titres larger than or equal to 160 in single sera). Only 42% of all patients had an acute respiratory illne...

1. Agglutination and precipitation by the specific substance of Streptococcus viridans are parallel phenomena. Separate specific substances have been extracted from strains which are distinct by ordinary serological tests. Preliminary chemical examination indicates that the specific substances may be complex carbohydrates. 2. A close relationship between nucleoproteins from different strains of...

Single radial diffusion (SRD) tests for antibodies to influenza type A hemagglutinin, neuraminidase, nucleoprotein, and matrix protein antigens were compared with conventional hemagglutination inhibition, neuraminidase inhibition, and complement fixation tests. Sera used in this study were obtained in 1968-1969 from volunteers before and after vaccination and before and after an ensuing epidemi...