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Ooteman MC, Vago AR, Koury MC. Evaluation of MAT, IgM ELISA and PCR methods for the diagnosis of human leptospirosis. J Microbiol Methods. 2006 May;65(2):247-57.

Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Av. Antonio Carlos, 6627, CP 486, CEP: 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Serum samples from 125 patients with clinical suspicion of leptospirosis were tested by the microscopic agglutination test (MAT), IgM ELISA and PCR for the diagnosis of the disease. Most patients were adult males and 74.1% (p<0.001) of the patients exposed to water and 77.6% (p<0.001) of those exposed to animals, were respectively considered confirmed or probable cases by MAT. The clinical symptoms mainly observed among the patients considered confirmed or probable cases were fever (95.6%), jaundice and headache (79.4%), myalgia (77.9%), nausea and vomiting (64.7%). About 63% of the confirmed or probable cases were patients that lived in Belo Horizonte, a big city of the Minas Gerais state, Brazil, showing the occurrence of urban leptospirosis. Among the 47 confirmed cases of leptospirosis diagnosed by MAT, 44 (94%) serum samples were positive by IgM ELISA and 17 (36%) were PCR positive. Among the 33 probable cases, 10 (30%) samples showed positive amplification by PCR. By considering MAT as the standard test, the sensitivity and specificity of IgM ELISA was 96.6% and 93.3%, respectively. A relevant finding in our study was the number of positive cases verified by PCR (13-29%) and IgM ELISA (3-7%) among the 45 unconfirmed cases by MAT, demonstrating the value of PCR in the early diagnosis of human leptospirosis.
 

Diagnosis, Diagnostics, Immunodiagnosis & Immunodiagnostics:

14749.  Griffith ME, Horvath LL, Mika WV, Hawley JS, Moon JE, Hospenthal DR, Murray CK. Viability of Leptospira in BacT/ALERT MB media. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2006 Apr;54(4):263-6.

14750.  Thai KT, Binh TQ, Giao PT, Phuong HL, Hung le Q, Van Nam N, Nga TT, Goris MG, de Vries PJ. Seroepidemiology of leptospirosis in southern Vietnamese children. Trop Med Int Health. 2006 May;11(5):738-45.

Pathogenesis :

14751.  De Souza AL, Sztajnbok J, Marques SR, Seguro AC. Leptospirosis-induced meningitis and acute renal failure in a 19-month-old male child. J Med Microbiol. 2006 Jun;55(Pt 6):795-

14752.  Doudier B, Garcia S, Quennee V, Jarno P, Brouqui P. Prognostic factors associated with severe leptospirosis. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2006 Apr;12(4):299-300.

Therapy :

14753.  Kahn JM, Muller HM, Kulier A, Keusch-Preininger A, Tscheliessnigg KH. Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by leptospire sepsis. Anesth Analg. 2006 May;102(5):1597-8.