Performance of an immunofiltration assay detecting IgM antibodies against ZEBRA and viral capsid p18 proteins (Immunoquick ? filtration EBV M) for the diagnosis of heterophile antibody-negative primary Epstein-Barr virus infection in children

摘要

To the editor.The detection of heterophile antibodies (HA) allows for a rapid and reliable diagnosis of primary Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. Nevertheless, HA are frequently absent in young children.We previously evaluated the performance of an immunofiltration assay (IMFA) detecting IgM antibodies to EBV ZEBRA (BamHl Z EBV replication activator) protein (Immunoquick~R filtration EBV M assay; BioSynex Immunodiagnostic, Strasbourg Cedex, France) for the diagnosis of acute EBV infectious mononu-cleosis (IM). Overall, the sensitivity and the specificity of the assay were found to be 92.5%, and 97.3%, respectively. In the current study we evaluated the performance of this IMFA assay for the diagnosis of HA-negative primary EBV infection in previously healthy children.