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Performance Evaluation of the Abbott HTLV III EIA, a Test for Antibody to HTLV III in Donor Blood

1986; Oxford University Press; Volume: 86; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ajcp/86.2.180

1943-7722

Jean E. Barrett, George J. Dawson, John R. Heller, Carolyn Bairstow, Rosario Fico, Jessica Webber, Robin A. Gutierrez, Richard H. Decker,

Viral Infections and Immunology Research

An enzyme immunoassay (EIA), designed to detect antibodies to human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV III), was evaluated. The antibody test was found to be highly sensitive; serum from 221 of 223 (99.1%) patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was positive for antibodies to HTLV III. In addition, the antibody test was found to be highly specific; approximately 99.75% of 20,720 serum or plasma samples from blood donors were negative for antibody to HTLV III. In most cases, the Western Blot analysis agreed well with the EIA. Eighty-one of 82 (98.8%) EIA-positive samples from patients with AIDS were Western Blot positive. Of the EIA-positive blood donors, 21 of 36 (58%) were detected and confirmed by Western Blot analysis. A solid-phase competitive EIA also was evaluated as an alternate procedure. The preliminary results indicate that this immunoassay has a high degree of sensitivity and specificity and could serve as an alternate procedure to detect antibody to HTLV III.