Ann Lab Med.  2018 Sep;38(5):458-465. 10.3343/alm.2018.38.5.458.

Diagnostic Performance and Comparative Evaluation of the Architect, Liaison, and Platelia Epstein-Barr Virus Antibody Assays

• Park Y
• Park BG
• Ha J
• Kim HS

• KMID: 2434736
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/alm.2018.38.5.458

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is one of the most prevalent causes of viral infection in humans. EBV infection stage (acute, past, or absent infection) is typically determined using a combination of assays that detect EBV-specific markers, such as IgG and IgM antibodies against the EBV viral capsid antigen (VCA) and IgG antibodies against the EBV nuclear antigen (EBNA). We compared the diagnostic performance and agreement of results between three commercial EBV antibody assays using an EBV performance panel (SeraCare Life Science, Milford, MA, USA) as a reference.
METHODS
EBV antibody tests of EBV VCA IgM, VCA IgG, and EBNA IgG antibodies were performed by the Architect (Abbott Diagnostics, Wiesbaden, Germany), Liaison (DiaSorin, Saluggia, Italy), and Platelia (Bio-Rad, Marnes-la-Coquette, France) assays. Agreement between the three assays was evaluated using 279 clinical samples, and EBV DNA and antibody test results were compared.
RESULTS
The three EBV antibody assays showed good diagnostic performance with good and excellent agreement with the performance panel (kappa coefficient, >0.6). The overall VCA IgM positivity rate was higher in EBV DNA-positive samples than in EBV DNA-negative samples for all three EBV antibody assays (P=0.02). The three EBV antibody assays exhibited good agreement in results for the clinical samples.
CONCLUSIONS
The diagnostic performance of the three EBV antibody assays was acceptable, and they showed comparable agreement in results for the clinical samples.

Keyword

Epstein-Barr virus; Assay; Diagnostic performance; DNA; Antibody; Immunoglobulin

MeSH Terms

Antibodies
Biological Science Disciplines
Capsid
DNA
Epstein-Barr Virus Infections
Herpesvirus 4, Human*
Humans
Immunoglobulin G
Immunoglobulin M
Immunoglobulins
Antibodies
DNA
Immunoglobulin G
Immunoglobulin M
Immunoglobulins

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