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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 1998, p. 11-14, Vol. 36, No. 1
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of the Indirect Hemagglutination Assay for Diagnosis of Acute Leptospirosis

Paul N. Levett1,2,* and Carol U. Whittington1

Leptospira Laboratory, Ministry of Health & the Environment,1 and School of Clinical Medicine & Research, University of the West Indies,2 Barbados

Received 21 July 1997/Returned for modification 19 August 1997/Accepted 6 October 1997

Serology plays an important role in the diagnosis of leptospirosis. Few laboratories have the resources and expertise to perform the microscopic agglutination test. There is a need for rapid and simple serological tests which facilitate the early diagnosis of leptospirosis, while antibiotic therapy may be most effective. A commercially available indirect hemagglutination assay (IHA; MRL Diagnostics, Cypress, Calif.) was evaluated with multiple serum specimens from 107 patients being investigated for leptospirosis. By using a combination of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods for immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG antibodies and the microscopic agglutination test, 54 patients were found to have leptospirosis and 53 were found not to have leptospirosis. The sensitivity of IHA for the detection of acute leptospirosis was 100%, the specificity was 94%, the positive predictive value was 95%, and the negative predictive value was 100%. IHA was negative when 13 antinuclear antibody-positive sera, 24 serum specimens from patients with syphilis, and 16 serum specimens false positive by the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory test were tested. IHA was shown to detect both IgM and IgG classes of antibodies in human sera. Serum specimens from 27 dogs investigated for leptospirosis were studied: 3 samples gave nonspecific hemagglutination, but for all remaining samples, the results of IHA and an IgM ELISA were concordant. Performance of IHA was simple, and IHA requires no specialized equipment. It represents a useful assay for laboratories which require a leptospiral diagnostic capability but lack the expertise to perform specialist investigations.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of Clinical Medicine & Research, University of the West Indies, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados. Phone: (246) 427-5586. Fax: (246) 429-6738. E-mail: levett{at}sunbeach.net.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 1998, p. 11-14, Vol. 36, No. 1
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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