CURRENT STATUS OF RUBELLA TESTING - A REPORT BASED ON DATA FROM THE COLLEGE-OF-AMERICAN-PATHOLOGISTS SURVEYS, 1978-1980

Abstract

Data from national survey programs were used to define selected attributes of popular rubella [antibody testing] methods. Of those participating in the College of American Pathologists'' survey, 47% used passive hemagglutination (PHA), 45% used hemagglutination-inhibition (HI), 7% used indirect immunofluorescence and < 1% used enzyme immunosorbent assays. Enzyme assays were not evaluated. The other methods had sensitivities and specificities exceeding 94 and 88%, respectively. The predictive value of a negative test was used to identify differences among the various methods. The HI tests using human O cells had a 90-95% prediction rate for a true-negative result. Indirect immunofluorescence, PHA and HI using kaolin had the lowest predictive values (68-72%); values for other methods were intermediate. Levels of reactivity also differed. The HI methods using human O cells yielded higher titers than did the reference method (1-3 day old chick/heparin MnCl2), while the titers for HI methods using kaolin tended to be lower.