COMPARISON OF 3 MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY-BASED ENZYME IMMUNOASSAYS FOR DETECTION OF HERPES-SIMPLEX VIRUS IN CLINICAL SPECIMENS

Three commercial monoclonal antibody-based enzyme immunoassays (Herpch ek, IDEIA HSV and SureCell HSV) for detection of herpes simplex virus antigen were compared with isolation of virus in cell cultures. A tota l of 51 culture positive and 49 culture negative consecutively collect ed specimens that had been stored at -70 degrees C for a period of up to ten months were used in the study. Herpchek, IDEIA HSV and SureCell HSV assays gave a sensitivity of 88.2 %, 82.4 % and 47.1 % respective ly, and a specificity of 95.9 %, 93.9 % and 83.7 % respectively compar ed to cell culture. A blocking antibody test showed that two culture n egative specimens contained herpes simplex virus-specific antigens. If these two specimens were considered to be true positive, Herpchek, ID EIA HSV and SureCell HSV assays had a sensitivity of 88.7 %, 83.0 % an d 47.2 %, and a specificity of 100 %, 97.9 % and 85.1 % respectively. The positive predictive value (using the resolved sample results) for Herpchek, IDEIA HSV and SureCell HSV was 100 %, 97.8 % and 78.1 % resp ectively, and the negative predictive value 88.7 %, 83.6 % and 58.8 % respectively. These results demonstrated that Herpchek and IDEIA HSV a re sensitive and highly specific assays. Results could be obtained in less than five hours after receipt of specimens. SureCell HSV gave res ults in 15 minutes, but both the sensitivity and specificity were too low for this test to be considered as a substitute for culture.