Comparison of Passive Hemagglutination and Indirect Immunofluorescence Assay for the Diagnosis of Scrub typhus

Chang-Seop Lee; Keun-Sang Kwon; Sang-Eon Nha; Heung-Bum Lee

doi:10.3947/ic.2008.40.1.46

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Lee, Kwon, Nha, and Lee: Comparison of Passive Hemagglutination and Indirect Immunofluorescence Assay for the Diagnosis of Scrub typhus

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Infection and Chemotherapy

Infection and Chemotherapy 2008; 40(1): 46-48.

Published online: 29 February 2008

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3947/ic.2008.40.1.46

Comparison of Passive Hemagglutination and Indirect Immunofluorescence Assay for the Diagnosis of Scrub typhus

Chang-Seop Lee, M.D.¹, Keun-Sang Kwon, M.D.², Sang-Eon Nha³, Heung-Bum Lee, M.D.¹

¹Department of Internal Medicine, Chonbuk National University Medical School and Research Institute of Clinical Medicine, Jeonju, Korea.

²Department of Preventive Medicine, Chonbuk National University Medical School and Research Institute of Clinical Medicine, Jeonju, Korea.

³Department of Microbiology, Jeollabukdo Institute of Health & Environmental Research, Korea.

Correspondence: Heung-Bum Lee, M.D. Department of Internal Medicine, Chonbuk National University Medical School, 634-18, Keumamdong, Jeonju, 561-712, South Korea. Tel:+82-63-250-1685, Fax:+82-63-254-1609, lhbmd@chonbuk.ac.kr

Received 13 August 2007 Accepted 15 November 2007

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The gold standard for the serologic detection of scrub typhus is the indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA), however the passive hemagglutination assay (PHA) is commonly used method in Korea because of its availability, easy handling. We compared the sensitivity of PHA and IFA to compare their effectiveness in diagnosing scrub typhus. Out of 35 patients who were eventually diagnosed of scrub typhus by positive IFA, 19 patients (54%) were also tested positive for PHA during the acute phase (titer=1:80). Whereas 30 patients (85%) were positive in IFA during the acute phase. During the recovery phase 30 (85%) patients were positive in PHA, whereas all patients were found to be positive in IFA. Patients with 4-fold or greater rise of antibody were 12 (34.3%) in PHA, and 19 (54.3%) in IFA. We note that IFA has better sensitivity over PHA in detecting scrub typhus.

Keywords: Passive hemagglutination assay, Indirect Immunofluorescence assay, Scrub typhus

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Positive Rates on Passive Hemagglutination Assay and Indirect Immuno-fluorescence Assay for Patients with Confirmed Scrub typhus

PHA, Passive Hemagglutination Assay; IFA Indirect immunofluorescence assay

^*IgM ≧10, ^†IgG = 4 fold elevation

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