DEVELOPMENT AND USEFULNESS OF THE GELATIN-PARTICLE-AGGLUTINATION TESTFOR TITRATION OF ANTIBODIES AGAINST DIPHTHERIA, PERTUSSIS AND TETANUSTOXINS

The gelatin-particle-agglutination (PA) test for titrating antibodies against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus toxins was developed and use d for assaying 65 sera from healthy children to assess the antitoxin a cquisition in relation to the administration of adsorbed diphtheria-pu rified pertussis-tetanus (DPT) combined vaccine. The antitoxin titers obtained by the PA test and the conventional methods were correlated w ell; the correlation coefficient of the diphtheria antitoxin titers be tween the PA test and the cell culture method was 0.908, that of the t etanus antitoxin titers between the PA test and the passive hemaggluti nation test 0.968, and that of anti-pertussis toxin titers between the PA test and polystyrene-ball ELISA 0.885. The PA test was shown to be useful in both developed and developing countries, since it is simple to perform, sensitive and specific, and the three antitoxins can be t itrated by the same procedure.