BACKGROUND Screening of blood and blood products for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is routinely performed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the results confirmed by Western blot (WB). However, western blot is expensive and mostly performed in developed countries. A technique more superior or comparable to WB and adaptable to developing countries must be sought. In an...

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) and pemphigus foliaceus (PF) are autoimmune blistering diseases characterized by intraepidermal separation as the result of autoantibodies directed to desmoglein 1 and desmoglein 3, adhesion molecules that have a pathogenic role in blister formation. Both PV and PF are diagnosed according to clinical picture, histopathologic, immunopathologic and molecular biologic featu...

Screening of blood and blood products for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is routinely performed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the results confirmed by western blot (WB). In an effort to identify alternative techniques, two locally prepared test kits were evaluated to determine the performance in comparison to commercial kits. These diagnostic kits were indirect im...

The diagnostic accuracy of an indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT) for Strongyloides stercoralis at different serum antibody titers was evaluated. To assess diagnostic sensitivity, sera from 156 patients with known strongyloidiasis were collected. Negative control sera were obtained from a composite group of 427 subjects (blood donors and hospitalized patients). With an area under t...

An indirect fluorescence assay (IFA) with monoclonal antibodies developed for the detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in fecal smears (Meridian Diagnostics, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio) was compared with the Zeihl-Neelsen-modified acid-fast stain (MAFS) in 119 human fecal specimens collected between 1984 and 1987. The sensitivity of the IFA was 100%; all 56 specimens positive by MAFS exhibited fluo...

The use of serologically detectable male (SDM; also called H-Y) antigens to identify male embryos may be limited by the source of anti-SDM antibody. In the present study, novel anti-SDM B9-Fab recombinant clones (obtained by chain shuffling of an A8 original clone) were used to detect SDM antigens on murine embryos. Murine morulae and blastocysts (n=138) were flushed from the oviducts of Kunmin...

Hepatitis A virus-specific BSC-1 cells were used for the detection of serum immunoglobulins to hepatitis A virus by indirect immunofluorescence. Of 150 serum samples tested, specific immunoglobulin M was detected only in patients with serologically confirmed acute hepatitis A, while specific immunoglobulin G was detected in patients with acute or past clinical hepatitis A as well as many patien...

INTRODUCTION Human enteroviruses represent the most common etiological agents of aseptic meningitis. Rapid diagnosis of aseptic meningitis affects the management of patients. OBJECTIVE The aim of this work was to assess the efficacy of rapid antigen detection (RAD) assay for the confirmation of human enteroviruses in comparison to that of the conventional cell culture (CCC), and to identify t...