A comparative study of the fluorescent antibody test for rabies diagnosis in fresh and formalin-fixed brain tissue specimens

Many diagnostic methods have been used to detect rabies virus antigen. The preferred method for routine diagnosis of rabies in fresh or frozen brain t issues is the fluorescent antibody test (FAT). In this study, the FAT was u sed to evaluate the rabies status of fresh/frozen brain specimens from more than 800 rabies-suspected cases, in more than 14 different species of anim als. A comparable brain specimen from each case was fixed in 10%, buffered formalin and examined by the FAT. The evaluation of rabies status between f resh and formalin-fixed tissues was in agreement in more than 99.8% of the cases. When fresh tissue is not available for testing, these results valida te the use of this procedure for routine diagnosis of rabies in formalin-fi xed brain tissues. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.