A STUDY ON PERFORMANCE OF 2 SEROLOGICAL ASSAYS FOR DIAGNOSIS OF LEPROSY PATIENTS

We compared 2 serological tests for the diagnosis of leprosy to test t heir performances. The tests include the serum antibody competition te st (SACT) for the detection of antibodies to Mycobacterium leprae-spec ific epitope on 35 KDa protein molecule, and M. leprae gelatin particl e agglutination assay (MLPA), for the detection of antiphenolic glycol ipid-1 (PGL-1) antibodies. In both the assays a higher serological pos itivity was seen amongst multibacillary (MB) patients than those in pa ucibacillary (PB) patients. Taking all leprosy patients together, the sensitivity of SACT (59.7%) was observed to be statistically comparabl e to that of MLPA (66.9%). However, SACT proved to be more specific (9 7.7%) than MLPA (75.0%). The agreement between these 2 assays was obse rved to be moderate.