Open AccessEvaluation of a standardized F1 capsular antigen capture ELISA test kit for the rapid diagnosis of plague
Author(s) -
Splettstoesser Wolf D.,
Rahalison Lila,
Grunow Roland,
Neubauer Heinrich,
Chanteau Suzanne
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
fems immunology & medical microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1574-695X
pISSN - 0928-8244
DOI - 10.1016/j.femsim.2004.02.005
Subject(s) - plague (disease) , biology , antigen , virology , microbiology and biotechnology , immunology , medicine , pathology
Abstract Rapid detection of soluble F1 capsular antigen in serum, bubo fluid or urine of patients proved to be a valuable tool in the presumptive diagnosis of plague. We evaluated a F1 capsular antigen capture ELISA resembling a commercially available test kit. The minimal detectable concentration was 4 ng/ml. The specificity was 100% when investigating 47 sera from healthy Malagasy subjects and 98.4% when 365 sera from German blood donors were studied. Sensitivity was determined on sera ( n =11 ) and buboes ( n =18 ) from bacteriologically confirmed Malagasy plague patients. Sensitivity was 90.1% for serum and 100% for buboes. A standardized F1 capsular antigen capture ELISA test kit might be well suited for the early detection of plague particularly in non‐endemic areas where clinical microbiological laboratories have only limited access to alternative techniques for rapid identification of Yersinia pestis .