Development of a sandwich-dot enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for Streptococcus pneumoniae antigen detection in cerebrospinal fluid.

A new sandwich dot-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (sdot-ELISA) was developed using omniserum prepared against different strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae as capture antibody and also as second or revealing antibody after its conjugation with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) for detection of pneumococcal antigen in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). A total of 103 CSF samples of different categories were screened with newly developed dot-ELISA and results were compared with commercially available latex agglutination (LA) kit. The newly developed sdot-ELISA was more sensitive than LA test and can be used as an alternative diagnostic tool in laboratory and in field conditions.

Pneumococcal antigen detection in cerebrospinal fluid: a comparative study on counter immunoelectrophoresis, latex agglutination and coagglutination.

The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and predictive values of counter immunoelectrophoresis (CIE), latex agglutination (LA) and coagglutination (CoAg) tests were compared for detection of pneumococcal antigen in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients suspected of meningitis. A total of 95 CSF samples comprising 15 culture proven, 47 clinically suspected but culture negative cases of meningitis and 33 controls were screened by above tests. Among three tests, LA was found to have high sensitivity and moderately high negative predictive value than CIE and CoAg tests.

C-reactive protein in childhood meningitides.

Utility of C-reactive protein (CRP) latex agglutination test in meningitis was evaluated. Serum CRP test was positive in 100% cases of meningitic groups and 53% cases of "no meningitis (NM)" group. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) CRP test was positive in 100% cases of pyogenic meningitis, whereas it was negative in 95% cases of tuberculous meningitis and 100% cases of NM group.

Profile of blood pressure in normal school children.

A total of 2073 school children between the age group of 5-14 years were examined to define the normal range of auscultatory blood pressure and prevalence of hypertension. An equal number of children in each age, sex and socio-economic group were studied. Mean figures for systolic and diastolic blood pressure with standard deviation and 95th percentile position for each age group were calculated.