Comparison of the Rose Bengal Plate and the Complement Fixation Tests with the Tube Agglutination Test for Diagnosis of Human Brucellosis

Ying-Hock Teng,Jung-Jing Teng,Suryakant D Waghela,Samantha Chao,Hsu Chao

doi:10.4236/ojcd.2017.73008

Abstract

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease of economic importance. The clinical manifestations vary in humans; therefore a good diagnostic test is required to confirm the disease. The serum tube agglutination (SA) test, though still the most widely test used, can be problematic for the diagnosis of chronic infections. The other supplementary tests, such as the complement fixation (CF) test and ELISA, require special equipment, reagents and trained personnel. The Rose Bengal plate (RBP) test has shown potential as a good rapid diagnostic test. This is a report of serum samples from suspected cases of brucellosis that were tested using the RBP, SA and CF tests. The RBP test was shown to have a better relative sensitivity and as good specificity as the SA when compared with the CF test, and may be a useful initial diagnostic test for hospitals in remote rural areas if properly conducted with well stored antigen.

Highlights

Out of 965 samples submitted from Machakos General Hospital (MKS), 200 were not tested in Rose Bengal plate (RBP) test but only tested in serum tube agglutination (SA) and complement fixation (CF) tests
Sixty five of these were positive with SA test, of which 47 were positive with CF
Clinicians have to rely on serological tests to confirm the diagnosis of brucellosis in humans since the disease manifests with a variety of symptoms

Summary

Introduction

Clinical manifestations of brucellosis in humans vary since predominating signs may be related to complications affecting either gastrointestinal, respiratory, osteoarticular, cardiovascular or neurologic systems [2] [3] [4]. This can lead to misdiagnosis of the disease [5]. The standard method of diagnosis, is only effective during the acute stage of the disease and in practice, the isolation and confirmation of the Brucella organism is difficult and time consuming [8] [9]. Newer techniques that detect either the antigen or the DNA of the Brucella organisms are showing promising results they are not commonly used and require further evaluation [10] [11]

Methods

Results

Conclusion