Clinical evaluation of precipitin tests for genital actinomycosis

A precipitin test system for antibodies against Actinomyces israelii, comprising a combination of counterimmunoelectrophoretic and crossed immunoelectrophoretic gel techniques, was evaluated for its clinical usefulness in diagnosing genital actinomycosis. A total of 263 serum samples from healthy women and women with proven actinomycosis, A. israelii-associated salpingitis, other gynecological infections, or miscellaneous gynecological diseases were analyzed. Six different precipitins could be detected. Five precipitins were defined as specific for actinomycosis, whereas one was found to occur nonspecifically in women with gynecological infections. The specificity of the test system for the detection of cases of genital actinomycosis was 98%, and the sensitivity was 83%. The accuracy was 100% for negative prediction and 45% for positive prediction. Thus, the test was shown to be valuable for a noninvasive diagnosis of genital actinomycosis.