[Comparative serology in typhoid fever in children. II. Comparison of a microhemagglutination plate technic with...

Two lipopolysaccharide antigens that differ by the technique of preparation from S. typhi, one named crude is easily extracted, the other one is water-phenol extracted. Both were adsorbed by papain and cysteine to lamb erythrocyte surfaces, fixed then by glutaraldehyde and used in a plate microhemagglutination test (MHA). The MHA test was done with 30 sera from children with S. typhi blood isolates. The same number of control sera were tested for comparison. The crude LPS antigen showed better sensitivity: 73% versus 53% of the water-phenol extracted one despite a high index correlation (r = 0.88). The latest one was evaluated in a prospective study, using it during a six-month period in an emergency room with S. typhi blood isolated sera. The MHA test was compared with the surface fixation test. Both assays showed similar sensitivity and a specificity of 91 and 100%, respectively.