[Immunoenzyme method in the diagnosis of meningococcal infections]

The materials on the development and use of the test system, based on the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and intended for the detection of specific group A and C meningococcal polysaccharides and type b Haemophilus influenzae polysaccharide in the spinal fluid of patients, are presented. In this work commercial preparations manufactured in the USSR were used, and all parameters of the assay were developed on the basis of these preparations. The study was made on the samples of spinal fluid from 410 patients; of these, 203 had meningococcal infection, 57 had purulent bacterial meningitides and 150 had other diseases (acute respiratory diseases, influenza, etc.). As demonstrated by the results of this study, ELISA proved to be a highly specific and sensitive technique. In the investigation of the spinal fluid samples from the patients with meningococcal infection the use of ELISA with bacteriological techniques increased the number of positive results to 67%; with countercurrent electrophoresis, to 78%; and with bacterioscopy, to 83.8%. ELISA is recommended for practical use as an auxiliary laboratory technique and as a rapid method for the diagnosis of meningococcal infection.