Evaluation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) antibody screening tests for blood donors

Four technics were compared to find the most suitable screening test for the cytomegalovirus (CMV) antibody status in blood donors. One hundred thirty-five donor samples were tested by two enzyme immunoassays, EIA(Litton) and EIA(Abbott), and by latex agglutination (LA) and complement fixation (CF). The seroreactivity of the tests were judged by concordance of three or more methods. The authors found that the test performance of the EIA(Litton) could be improved with adjustment of sample color variation, which increased the test sensitivity and specificity from 48.8% and 87.2% to 83.8% and 96.4%, respectively. Both the EIA(Abbott) and LA technics proved to be ideal screening tests with 100% sensitivity and negative predictive values. However, the rapid turnaround time and the simplicity in technics and equipment used with the LA test make it the test of choice for blood donor screening.