Abstract
In acute respiratory infections, rapid diagnosis can be helpful for clinical decisions, like treatment, admission or isolation. As viral diagnosis by culture will take two to 7 days, the direct immunofluorescence assay (DIFA) was evaluated for its reliability as rapid diagnostic method.
650 nasopharyngeal aspirates taken in 1993 from children with an acute respiratory infection, being admitted or visiting the outpatient department, were simultaneously processed for DIFA on influenza A, B, parainfluenza, adenovirus and respiratory syncytial virus and virus isolation on tissue culture. In all DIFA's monoclonal antibodies were used. The results with virus culture as a golden standard, are given in the table:
All DIFA's turned out to be very specific, RSV was however the only test which can be used as single test for diagnosis. For the other respiratory viruses a negative DIFA has a poor sensitivity and should be confirmed by virus isolation on tissue culture.
*predictive value
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Arron, G., Brandenburg, A., Steensel- Moll, H. et al. 343 Direct Immunofluorescence in Diagnosis of Viral Respiratory Infections. Pediatr Res 36, 60 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199407000-00343
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199407000-00343
