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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 2004, p. 2476-2479, Vol. 42, No. 6
0095-1137/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.42.6.2476-2479.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Comparison of Quantitative and Semiquantitative Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays for Immunoglobulin G against Chlamydophila pneumoniae to a Microimmunofluorescence Test for Use with Patients with Respiratory Tract Infections

Corinna Hermann,^1* Katja Gueinzius,¹ Albrecht Oehme,² Sonja von Aulock,¹ Eberhard Straube,³ and Thomas Hartung¹

Biochemical Pharmacology, University of Konstanz, Constance,¹ Microbiology, University of Halle, Halle,² Microbiology, University of Jena, Jena, Germany³

Received 19 September 2003/ Returned for modification 10 January 2004/ Accepted 3 March 2004

We previously reported a high degree of variation in the sensitivities of serodiagnostic kits for the detection of Chlamydophila pneumoniae in sera from healthy donors. Since a low predictive value of a test can impair its diagnostic value, we have extended our studies to samples from patients with pneumonia. We focused on the most promising enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) (SeroCP and SeroCP Quant; Savyon) identified in our previous study and included a new ELISA (sELISA; Medac). The agreement between all ELISAs for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and a reference microimmunofluorescence (MIF) test for IgG (SeroFIA; Savyon) was 90% for a collective of 80 patients. The positive predictive values were all 93%. The negative predictive values ranged from 68 to 83%. False-negative results were obtained only for samples that had low titers in the MIF test. The correlation of the IgG antibody titers determined by the MIF and SeroCP Quant tests was high (r_sp = 0.9). Since the semiquantitative SeroCP and quantitative SeroCP Quant ELISAs achieved the highest sensitivities, they were evaluated further by using a second batch of sera from 50 patients with predominantly medium and low antibody titers in the MIF test and a control collection of sera from 80 children with negative MIF results. Again, the tests showed a high concordance with the MIF results (96%), and the antibody titers in the SeroCP Quant and MIF tests correlated well (r_sp = 0.8). The specificities determined with the negative sera were 99% for the SeroCP Quant test and 86% for the SeroCP test. These results show that ELISAs that are fast and objective deliver seroprevalence results, sensitivities, and specificities that are very similar to those of the MIF test.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Biochemical Pharmacology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Constance, Germany. Phone: 49-7531-884524. Fax: 49-7531-884156. E-mail: corinna.hermann{at}uni-konstanz.de.

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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 2004, p. 2476-2479, Vol. 42, No. 6
0095-1137/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.42.6.2476-2479.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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