EVALUATION OF A BRUCELLA ENZYME-IMMUNOASSAY TEST (ELISA) IN COMPARISON WITH BACTERIOLOGICAL CULTURE AND AGGLUTINATION

An ELISA test for IgG and IgM antibrucella antibodies was found to be effective in diagnosis of human brucellosis. Assays for IgG and IgM in 30 culture-positive cases gave significant ELISA values, By the stand ard agglutination best, 10% of these cases gave readings less than 1:1 60. These are considered insignificant, taking 1:160 as the accepted c ut-off value, Moreover, in an extra 135 samples from suspected brucell a cases, where only serology was requested (77.6% of all cases), 7.4% were found to have IgM brucella antibodies by ELISA. In all of these, the corresponding agglutination titres were less than 1:80 and hence r eported as insignificant, We report the detection of IgG and IgM antib odies in samples from patients with both acute and chronic disease. In few patients with acute disease, only IgM was detected. These finding s are discussed in comparison with earlier studies, Finally, the ELISA test, in addition to measuring antibody classes directly, also detect s incomplete antibodies, By this, it can efficiently replace the 2 mer captoethanol test (2ME) and the Coomb's antihuman-globulin test, This saves considerable laboratory cost and time.