Experience with radial haemolysis for rubella antibody screening

Twelve hundred and thirty three sera were tested in parallel by the single radial haemolysis (SRH) and by the simplified haemagglutination inhibition (HAI) technique in routine use in this laboratory. In 1203 (97.6%) of these sera the results were in agreement. The remaining 30 (2.4%) sera were re-tested by both methods because on initial testing the results obtained by the two methods did not agree; only three specimens remained discrepant. The SRH is a simple test to perform and discriminates clearly between positive and negative sera. It is particularly suitable for screening large batches of sera.