DETECTION OF SERUM INTERFERON-ALPHA BY DISSOCIATION-ENHANCED LANTHANIDE FLUOROIMMUNOASSAY - STUDIES OF PATIENTS WITH ACUTE VIRAL AND BACTERIAL-INFECTIONS

A sensitive dissociation-enhanced lanthanide fluoroimmunoassay (DELFIA ) was evaluated for ability to detect interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) in serum of patients with acute infectious disease of less than one week' s duration and a fever of >38 degrees C. None of 36 patients with conf irmed or probable bacterial disease was IFN-alpha positive. In contras t, 13/26 patients with viral infections had detectable levels of IFN-a lpha in serum, all clearly positive (greater than or equal to 10 U/ml) . The IFN-alpha positive serum samples were obtained early after onset of clinical disease, after a mean of 2.4 days. The IFN-alpha positive samples were obtained from 10 of the 12 patients with influenza or fl u-like infection, and 3 of the 5 patients with varicella or herpes tes ter. The IFN-alpha negative patients with viral disease (n=9) included five patients with mononucleosis. The DELFIA should be useful in furt her studies of the value of IFN-alpha determinations in the identifica tion of acute viral infections.