Confirmation of meningococcal disease by urinary antigen testing

Clarke, S C, Reid, J, Thom, L and Edwards, G F (2001) Confirmation of meningococcal disease by urinary antigen testing. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 7 (10), 565-7. (doi:10.1046/j.1198-743x.2001.00319.x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The meningococcus is an important cause of morbidity and mortality and a rapid laboratory diagnosis is required through accurate, non-culture-based methods. Body fluids that are easily obtainable are preferred for this route of diagnosis and urine is the specimen of choice as it can be obtained non-invasively. Urine samples were tested from patients with suspected meningococcal disease and tested by latex agglutination and PCR. It was shown that urinary PCR is not useful for the laboratory confirmation of MD but latex agglutination testing may be useful in certain settings prior to confirmatory testing by a reference laboratory.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: October 2001

Keywords: Antigens, Bacterial/urine, Bacteriuria/diagnosis, Clinical Laboratory Techniques, DNA, Bacterial, Humans, Latex Fixation Tests/methods, Meningococcal Infections/diagnosis, Neisseria meningitidis/immunology, Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods, Reproducibility of Results, Sensitivity and Specificity