Comparative Study of Screening Tests ( ELISA , PAT ) for AIDS

Won, Young Ho; Chun, Inn Ki; Kim, Young Pio

Abstract

There are several ELISA(enzyme linked immunosobent assay) kits to be highly sensitive and specific in the screening test for antibodies to HIV. However, these have several problems such as high false-positive rate, low reproducibility and complex test procedures. A new serological test, the gelatin particle agglutination test(PAT), was developed and reported as good test having the same sensitivity with ELISA, and simple and easy procedure. The purpose of this study is com parison of two screening tests, ELISA and PAT, for detection of antibodies to HIV In one hundred two prostitutes, who used to contact with foreigners such as U.S. army personels, 10 syphilitic patients in Chonnam University hospital and 3 HIV infected patients, the serological results were equal in both tests, so there. was 100% concordance rate of seroreactivity between ELISA and PAT. Among 13 serum samples with false positive in ELISA test, only one sample revealed also reactive in PAT, which suggest indirectly us for PAT to be more specific than ELISA. The quantitative test with PAT of 4 consecutive serums during 4 months in the AIDS patient with Kaposi's sarcoma. However, in overall serum titer, the AIDS patient was higher than asymptomatic infected person. Thus the PAT test should be also useful for the mass screcning and quantitative test of anti-HIV antibody, and is highly recommedable for detection of HIV infection because the test can be performed with simple procedure and techique in addition ecoomically low cost and shortened time for the test.