COMPARISON OF MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY METHODS AND A RIBOSOMAL RIBONUCLEIC-ACID PROBE TEST FOR NEISSERIA-GONORRHOEAE CULTURE CONFIRMATION

Recently, a chemiluminescent nucleic acid probe test that specifically detects the ribosomal ribonucleic acid of Neisseria gonorrhoeae has b een released for clinical laboratory use (AccuProbe Neisseria gonorrho eae). In this study, three coagglutination tests (GonoGen I, Meritec G C, and GC Omni), the GonoGen II immunofiltration method and the MicroT rak Neisseria gonorrhoeae fluorescent monoclonal antibody test were co mpared with AccuProbe for identification of gonococci. Strains tested (n = 376) included 194 Neisseria gonorrhoeae, 82 Neisseria meningitidi s, 32 Neisseria lactamica, 32 Neisseria species, 32 Moraxella catarrha lis, 2 Moraxella spp. and 2 Kingella denitrificans. The GonoGen I, Mer itec GC and GC Omni coagglutination tests produced clearly positive re sults for 93.8 %, 92.3 % and 95.9 % of the gonococci, respectively. Th e GonoGen II unequivocally identified 91.8 % and the MicroTrak fluores cent antibody test identified 90.7 % with 2+ or greater fluorescence. AccuProbe identified 100 % of the gonococci tested. GonoGen I and Gono Gen II were 98 % specific, Meritec GC was 99 % specific and the specif icity of the GC Omni, MicroTrak fluorescent antibody and AccuProbe tes ts was 100 %. While antibody-based tests were reliable when results we re clearly interpretable, the AccuProbe was the only confirmatory test that was 100 % accurate. Serotyping studies indicate that an array of beta-lactamase positive and negative gonococcal serotypes fail to rea ct with the monoclonal antibody-based tests in general and with the fl uorescent antibody test in particular.