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. 1976 Nov;4(5):389–393. doi: 10.1128/jcm.4.5.389-393.1976

Rubella hemagglutination-inhibition test: false-positive reactions in sera contaminated with bacteria.

J B Campbell, M Romach, M L Ellins
PMCID: PMC274485  PMID: 825529

Abstract

We have shown that bacterial contamination of sera can have a marked influence on the results of the rubella hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) test. In addition to increasing the levels of nonspecific agglutinins, a number of common bacterial species tested had a significant effect on the HI titers. When sera free from rubella-specific antibodies were contaminated with Bacillus subtilis or Pseudomonas fluorescens, HI titers ranged from 16 to 128 (expressed as the reciprocal of the highest serum dilution completely inhibiting hemagglutination) after treatment with heparin/MnCl2. Our observations demonstrate, therefore, that bacterial contamination can be one of the causes of false-positive reactions in this test.

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Selected References

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

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