Key words: Legionella, urinary antigen, enzymeimmunoassay (EIA), rapid diagnosis
lymerase chain reaction(pcr) EIA kit Table1 @ Reference strains used in this study Table2 @ Comparison between Biotest and Binax
Table3 @ Positive cases for urinary antigen detection test Table4 @ Comparison between culture method and urinary antigen EIA Sensitivity: 100%(5/5) Specificity: 93%(67/72) Overall agreement to culture: 93.5%(72/77)
Table5 @ Comparison between IFA and urinary antigeneia Sensitivity: 50.0%(3/6) Specificity: 90.0%(63/70) Overall agreement to IFA: 86.8%(66/76) Table6 @ Comparison between PCR and urinary antigen Sensitivity: 100%(7/7) Specificity: 97.1%(67/69) Overall agreement to PCR: 97.4%(74/76)
Fig.1 @ Clinical course of Legionella pneumonia: case7
Table7 @ Urinary antigen detection as a function of days after onset The average day of first positive specimen after onset: day13 Table8 @ Urinary antigen detection as a function of days after admission The average day of first positive specimen after admission: day8.1 1) Yu VL: Legionella pneumonia (Legionnaires' disease) Principles and practice of infectious disease. 4th ed., 1995; 2087-2097, Mandell GL, Bennet JE, Dolin R eds. Churchill Livingstone, New York, 1995. 2) Kashuba AD, Ballow CH: Legionella urinary an- testing: Potential impact on diagnosis and tigen antibiotic therapy. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis
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Evaluation of Urinary Antigen Detection Methods for Rapid Diagnosis of Legionella pneumonia Noriko ARAKAKI1), Futoshi HIGA1), Michio KOIDE", Masao TAKEYAMA1), Takashi SHINZATO1), Nobuchika KUSANO2), Eiko YABUUCHI3) and Atushi SAITO1) We have evaluated urine specimens of presumptive cases of legionnaires' disease (110cases, 173 sample), collected in the past eight years (April, 1990August, 1998) with the Binax EIA kit which detects the soluble antigen of Legionella pneumophila serogroup (SG) 1, and the Biotest EIA kit which detects Legionella species. Seven cases (19specimens) were positive for the Binax EIA kit, and nine cases (22specimens) were positive for the Biotest EIA kit. The sensitivity for culture, PCR, IFA method were100%, 100 %, and50%, the specificity for these method were 93%, 97.1%, and90% respectively. Overall agreements for these method were93.5%, 97.4%, 86.8%, these results suggested that the urinary antigen detection test had high sensitivity and specificity. Our study indicated that concentrated urine samples increase sensitivity. We also evaluated the capabilities of both EIAs to detect soluble antigens were extracted from bacterial suspension of18strains of5legionella species by heating. Both assays detected L. pneumophila serogroups1to14, L. bozemanii. The Binax EIA proved to be useful as the Biotest EIA for diagnosis of legionellosis caused by Legionella species and serogroups other than L. pneumophila serogroup 1. Some cases have been shown to excrete antigen for prolonged period of times despite recovery from infection, so that the patient's history should be sought. The urine antigen detection EIA methods proved to be rapid and easy to use, detect antigen in the early stage of the desease with high sensitivity and specificity. Its use for the definition of legionellosis should be considered in Japan.