Detection of meningococcal antigen by latex agglutination in methods

Sobanski, Michael, Barnes, Rosemary Anne and Coakley, W. T. 2001. Detection of meningococcal antigen by latex agglutination in methods. Pollard, A. J. and Maiden, M. C.J., eds. Meningococcal Disease: Methods and Protocols, Methods in Molecular Medicine, vol. 67. London: Humana Press, pp. 41-59. (10.1385/1-59259-149-3:41)

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Abstract

Meningococcal meningitis and septicemia are serious infections with significant morbidity and mortality. A sensitive affordable test is required to provide evidence of meningococcal disease at the earliest opportunity to improve local management and give early warning of potential outbreaks of disease. Culture of organisms is considered the gold standard for diagnosis but is slow (24 h or more) and increasingly influenced by prior antibiotic treatment. Recently, the development of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has improved diagnosis but this sensitive assay is costly, is not available at most primary care institutions and is not feasible for developing countries. Conventional latex agglutination (LA) enables rapid detection of bacterial antigen in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) (1,2) and can also be used to test specimens of blood (3,4) or urine (5) and for serogroup determinations on primary cultures (6,7). We discuss here test-card agglutination and also describe a new technique based upon LA in an ultrasonic standing wave that retains the speed of direct antigen testing while significantly increasing sensitivity.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Publisher:	Humana Press
ISBN:	9780896038493
Related URLs:	Publisher Publisher
Last Modified:	04 Jun 2017 04:04
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/32205

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