COMPARISON OF 7 COMMERCIAL TESTS FOR THE DETECTION OF PARVOVIRUS B19-SPECIFIC IGM

Several enzyme immunoassays (EIA) for the detection of parvovirus B19 IgM (anti-B19 IgM) are now commercially available. In this study, seve n commercial EIAs (Biotrin, DAKO, Viramed, Viratech, R-Biopharm, Mast) were compared with an in-house EIA (MvP-EIA) using native viral B19 p articles and the reference IgM radioimmunoassay (MACRIA). A total of 8 8 sera were tested. Results agreed in 39/88 (44.3%) sera, whereas 47/8 8 (53.4%) were discrepant and 2/88 (2.3%) gave an equivocal result. As say sensitivity ranged from 70.3 to 100% and specificity, from 75.9 to 100%. The best results were obtained with two EIAs (Biotrin, DAKO) us ing baculovirus-expressed B19 proteins as antigen. This study has show n that baculovirus-expressed B19 antibody tests are suitable tools for detecting anti-B19 IgM.