BACKGROUND Screening tests are available to determine immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases, such as mumps and rubella. We aimed to define better assay for detecting immune status of health care personnel to vaccine-preventable diseases. METHODS Mumps and rubella antibodies of health care personnel at Shimane University Hospital were examined by hemagglutination inhibition assay (HI), comp...

The specificities of four assays for hepatitis C virus (HCV) were compared by using units from volunteer blood donors. Upon Food and Drug Administration licensure of the first immunoassay for anti-HCV, EIA-1, units previously deemed acceptable for transfusion and all subsequent blood donations were screened. EIA-1 repeat-reactive (RR) units were tested for HCV by a second-generation enzyme-link...

Enzyme immunoassay (EIA) is an ideal method for screening large numbers of patients for syphilis. We evaluated a novel immune-capture EIA (ICE Syphilis; Murex Diagnostics) that uses three recombinant Treponema pallidum antigens (TpN15, TpN17, and TpN47) and compared the results with those obtained by the native T. pallidum antigen EIA (Captia SelectSyph-G; Centocor) that we currently use for th...

What we know: Exercise-induced asthma (EIA) occurs in up to 23% of schoolchildren. In 40% of children with demonstrable EIA, no clinical diagnosis of asthma has been made. Children with asthma and EIA have eosinophils in their sputum, consistent with active asthma. EIA is well controlled in 50%-65% of children with moderate to severe asthma, so that only a minority will need prophylactic therap...

BACKGROUND Increasing interest in the use of enzyme immunoassays (EIA) for syphilis screening has generated a considerable need for data on the performance of such tests. METHODS We compared the performance of 1 EIA, the TREP-SURE EIA to that of the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) and Treponema pallidum particle agglutination assay (TPPA) in the detection of infection with Trepone...

OBJECTIVE To assess the cost-effectiveness of identifying asymptomatic carriers of Chlamydia trachomatis among adolescent males. DESIGN Cost-effectiveness analysis based on cohort analytic studies previously reported and average salaries and costs of medical care in Sweden. SETTING Adolescent males attending a primary care center for routine health checks. PARTICIPANTS Estimates of costs ...

BACKGROUND Clinical features of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) cases diagnosed by detection of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), with negative toxin enzyme immunoassay results (EIA) have not been fully elucidated. The purpose of this study was to determine the magnitude of CDI patients who had negative EIA toxin determinations but positive PCR tests, and their differences in clinical pres...

As part of a large hydroelectric project in northern Québec (Canada), a portion of the flow of the Rupert River was diverted toward the existing La Grande hydroelectric complex. As a result of the partial diversion, the discharge of the Rupert River at its mouth is reduced by an average of 50% annually. This corresponds to an 18% decrease in the total freshwater inflow into the bay and, thus, t...

The sensitivity of detection of antigenuria in patients positive by the MiraVista Diagnostics Histoplasma enzyme immunoassay (MVD EIA) was 44% with the IMMY ALPHA Histoplasma antigen EIA. The specificity was 84% with the IMMY EIA versus 98% with the MVD EIA. The correlation between assays for positive cases was weak (r(2) = 0.430).