Pj. Krause et al., DIAGNOSIS OF BABESIOSIS - EVALUATION OF A SEROLOGIC TEST FOR THE DETECTION OF BABESIA-MICROTI ANTIBODY, The Journal of infectious diseases, 169(4), 1994, pp. 923-926
To assess the possibility of standardization of a commonly used indire
ct immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) test for detection of Babesia micr
oti antibody in human sera, the results from four reference laboratori
es were compared. Patients with babesiosis from southern New England (
n = 25) and subjects with no history of babesiosis from southern New E
ngland (n = 55) and Iceland (n = 50) were enrolled in the study. Anti-
Babesia antibody titers were determined in a blinded fashion by IFA te
st. The range of test results in the four laboratories was 88%-96% sen
sitivity, 90%-100% specificity, 69%-100% positive predictive value, an
d 96%-99% negative predictive value. interlaboratory and intralaborato
ry concordance ranged from 84% to 85% and 94% to 100%, respectively. T
his B, microti IFA procedure is a sensitive, specific, and reproducibl
e method for diagnosing babesiosis and is suitable for use as a standa
rd in laboratories testing human sera for B. microti antibody.