Comparison of Five Different Serological Assays for Determination of Antibody Levels Against Herpes Virus Type 1 and 2

To aid in the diagnosis of certain clinical types of Herpes virus infections, we evaluated and compared five serological methods for measuring Herpes virus antibody. The five tests we compared are complement fixation test (CF), indirect immunofluorescent antibody assay (IFA), anticomplementary immunofluorescent assay (ACIF), enzyme linked immunoassay test (ELISA), and the latex agglutination test (LA). The main objective of this study was to establish which of the currently available serologic tests was best suited for clinical laboratory use and which may then replace the complement fixation test. In the comparative testing, one hundred twenty serum samples were divided into four groups which were based on their complement fixation test results. The groups were negative, low positive, high positive and blind samples. A commercial indirect fluorescent antibody test was compared and was found to be easy to perform and cost effective. The problems with the IFA test is that it has low specificity and high false-positive predictability. A third test compared was a commercially available ELISA kit, which was shown to be rapid and sensitive. This test appeared to have a high false-positive rate based upon results obtained from cell culture control beads. The ACIF test was also included. It eliminated the false positive problems observed with the IFA. The final test method was a commercial latex agglutination kit, which performed similarly with the other tests. In our hands we have found the latex agglutination test to be most ideal