Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1997 Jun;35(6):1627–1629. doi: 10.1128/jcm.35.6.1627-1629.1997

Comparison of radioimmunoassay and enzyme immunoassay kits for detection of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 antigen in both concentrated and nonconcentrated urine samples.

J A Domínguez 1, L Matas 1, J M Manterola 1, R Blavia 1, N Sopena 1, F J Belda 1, E Padilla 1, M Giménez 1, M Sabrià 1, J Morera 1, V Ausina 1
PMCID: PMC229807  PMID: 9163502

Abstract

We evaluated a commercial enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kit for detection of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 soluble antigen by comparing it to radioimmunoassay (RIA), using both concentrated and nonconcentrated urine samples. The sensitivity of EIA was 67.4% in nonconcentrated urine samples and 82.6% in concentrated urine samples. The sensitivity of RIA was 60.9% and 84.8% in nonconcentrated and concentrated urine samples, respectively. Our study indicates that the sensitivity and specificity of EIA are comparable to those of RIA, and that concentrating the antigen by selective ultrafiltration increases sensitivity for both EIA and RIA, with no significant decrease in specificity.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (104.4 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Aguero-Rosenfeld M. E., Edelstein P. H. Retrospective evaluation of the Du Pont radioimmunoassay kit for detection of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 antigenuria in humans. J Clin Microbiol. 1988 Sep;26(9):1775–1778. doi: 10.1128/jcm.26.9.1775-1778.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Berdal B. P., Farshy C. E., Feeley J. C. Detection of Legionella pneumonophila antigen in urine by enzyme-linked immunospecific assay. J Clin Microbiol. 1979 May;9(5):575–578. doi: 10.1128/jcm.9.5.575-578.1979. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bibb W. F., Arnow P. M., Thacker L., McKinney R. M. Detection of soluble Legionella pneumophila antigens in serum and urine specimens by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. J Clin Microbiol. 1984 Sep;20(3):478–482. doi: 10.1128/jcm.20.3.478-482.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Birtles R. J., Harrison T. G., Samuel D., Taylor A. G. Evaluation of urinary antigen ELISA for diagnosing Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 infection. J Clin Pathol. 1990 Aug;43(8):685–690. doi: 10.1136/jcp.43.8.685. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chang F. Y., Stout J. E., Yu V. L. Assessment of enzyme immunoassay versus radioimmunoassay for detection of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 antigen in frozen urine specimens. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Oct;34(10):2628–2629. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.10.2628-2629.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Domínguez J. A., Manterola J. M., Blavia R., Sopena N., Belda F. J., Padilla E., Giménez M., Sabrià M., Morera J., Ausina V. Detection of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 antigen in nonconcentrated urine and urine concentrated by selective ultrafiltration. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Sep;34(9):2334–2336. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.9.2334-2336.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Edelstein P. H. Legionnaires' disease. Clin Infect Dis. 1993 Jun;16(6):741–747. doi: 10.1093/clind/16.6.741. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Edelstein P. H., Meyer R. D., Finegold S. M. Laboratory diagnosis of Legionnaires' disease. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1980 Feb;121(2):317–327. doi: 10.1164/arrd.1980.121.2.317. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hackman B. A., Plouffe J. F., Benson R. F., Fields B. S., Breiman R. F. Comparison of Binax Legionella Urinary Antigen EIA kit with Binax RIA Urinary Antigen kit for detection of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 antigen. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Jun;34(6):1579–1580. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.6.1579-1580.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Kohler R. B., Wheat L. J., French M. L., Meenhorst P. L., Winn W. C., Jr, Edelstein P. H. Cross-reactive urinary antigens among patients infected with Legionella pneumophila serogroups 1 and 4 and the Leiden 1 strain. J Infect Dis. 1985 Nov;152(5):1007–1012. doi: 10.1093/infdis/152.5.1007. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Kohler R. B., Winn W. C., Jr, Wheat L. J. Onset and duration of urinary antigen excretion in Legionnaires disease. J Clin Microbiol. 1984 Oct;20(4):605–607. doi: 10.1128/jcm.20.4.605-607.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Kohler R. B., Zimmerman S. E., Wilson E., Allen S. D., Edelstein P. H., Wheat L. J., White A. Rapid radioimmunoassay diagnosis of Legionnaires' disease: detection and partial characterization of urinary antigen. Ann Intern Med. 1981 May;94(5):601–605. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-94-5-601. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Plouffe J. F., File T. M., Jr, Breiman R. F., Hackman B. A., Salstrom S. J., Marston B. J., Fields B. S. Reevaluation of the definition of Legionnaires' disease: use of the urinary antigen assay. Community Based Pneumonia Incidence Study Group. Clin Infect Dis. 1995 May;20(5):1286–1291. doi: 10.1093/clinids/20.5.1286. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Ruf B., Schürmann D., Horbach I., Fehrenbach F. J., Pohle H. D. Prevalence and diagnosis of Legionella pneumonia: a 3-year prospective study with emphasis on application of urinary antigen detection. J Infect Dis. 1990 Dec;162(6):1341–1348. doi: 10.1093/infdis/162.6.1341. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Sathapatayavongs B., Kohler R. B., Wheat L. J., White A., Winn W. C., Jr, Girod J. C., Edelstein P. H. Rapid diagnosis of Legionnaires' disease by urinary antigen detection. Comparison of ELISA and radioimmunoassay. Am J Med. 1982 Apr;72(4):576–582. doi: 10.1016/0002-9343(82)90451-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Tang P. W., Toma S. Broad-spectrum enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of Legionella soluble antigens. J Clin Microbiol. 1986 Oct;24(4):556–558. doi: 10.1128/jcm.24.4.556-558.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Tilton R. C. Legionnaires' disease antigen detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Ann Intern Med. 1979 Apr;90(4):697–698. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-90-4-697. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES