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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, 03 1997, 213-216, Vol 4, No. 2
Copyright © 1997 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of Chlamydia immunoglobulin M (IgM), IgG, and IgA rELISAs Medac for diagnosis of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection

A Kutlin, N Tsumura, U Emre, PM Roblin and MR Hammerschlag
Department of Pediatrics, State University of New York at Brooklyn 11203-2098, USA.

Chlamydia pneumoniae is an important pathogen responsible for a variety of respiratory diseases in humans. Cell culture remains the most specific method for C. pneumoniae diagnosis, but it is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Thus, serology, particularly microimmunofluorescence (MIF) testing, is frequently utilized. However, the MIF test has a significant subjective component. We evaluated a new serological test: Chlamydia Immunoglobulin M (IgG, IgA, and IgM rELISAs Medac, based on a recombinant Chlamydia-specific lipopolysaccharide (LPS) fragment, for the diagnosis of C. pneumoniae infection. The results of this study demonstrated that the use of rELISAs Medac with single sera does not appear to be sensitive or specific for diagnosis of C. pneumoniae infection compared to culture. In children, sensitivities of the rELISAs compared to culture did not exceed 34.2%, and the specificities ranged from 68.4% (IgG) to 91.2% (IgA). In adults, the sensitivities of the rELISAs were slightly higher, up to 77.8% (IgA or IgG), but the specificities ranged from a very low 20.8% for IgA or IgG to 81.1% for IgM. When multiple sera were tested, the results of the rELISAs Medac correlated with culture results in five of eight (62.5%) patients. However, this offers only a retrospective diagnosis, which makes it difficult to manage these patients prospectively.

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