A prospective clinical trial of the "HIM" test.

Abstract

The usefulness of the Hepatitis-Infectious Mononucleosis (HIM) Antibody Test in the differential diagnosis of the hospitalized patient with jaundice and elevated enzymes was evaluated. Fifty patients were selected for study by daily scannings of the bilirubin and transaminase determinations performed in the clinical laboratory of this hospital. Without knowledge of HIM test results, these patients were grouped clinically by two or three of the authors and by each patient's attending clinician. This grouping formed the following clinical classifications: 22 patients with abnormal liver function studies without infectious hepatitis, 21 patients with infectious hepatitis, 3 patients with chronic active hepatitis, 2 patients with infectious mononucleosis, and 2 patients who were categorized separately as a result of disagreement among the clinical reviewers regarding their diagnoses. HIM antibody titers were performed using coded serum specimens from the patients, 99 blood bank serum specimens, and sera from 21 infants and children 9 to 18 months of age. No significant differences were demonstrable among the means and ranges of HIM antibody titers of the groups studied. The authors concluded, therefore, that HIM testing of serum specimens from hospitalized jaundiced patients has no diagnostic value. Serial determinations of HIM antibody titers at weekly intervals in hospitalized jaundiced patients added no diagnostic potency to the HIM test.