[Comparative study of indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) and ELISA techniques in the detection of parvovirus B19]

To determine the seroprevalence of IgG and IgM antibodies against Parvovirus B19 (P. B19), we studied the sera of 53 patients with different hematologic disorders and the sera of 15 controls using indirect immunofluorescence (IFI) and the ELISA method. The prevalence of IgG in the control group was 46.6%, in patients with aplastic crisis was 83.3% (IFI) and 66.7% (ELISA) and, in patients without crisis was 68.9% (IFI) and 72.4% (ELISA). IgM was negative except for patients with crisis: 8.3% (IFI) and 29.1% (ELISA). The higher seroprevalence (IgG) found in patients in comparison with controls might be due to a greater exposure of of patients to the virus. The agreement for both techniques was 81%(IgG) and 93% (IgM) however ELISA technique was more sensitive for detecting IgM of P. B19. In spite of serologic evidence and evaluating a simple serum sample per patient, we could establish an association between aplastic crisis and viral infection for IgM ELISA but not for IgG between hematologic disorders and infection for the P. B19.