Summary

✍ Scribed by P. S. Gardner; Colin R. Howard

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1978
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 173 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.1890030117

✦ Synopsis

A symposium exists in time and space for only a short period and a summary of its contents can only give scant recognition to its quality.

The last decade has seen the introduction of a number of specific laboratory techniques for differentiating the two clinically and pathologically similar forms of viral hepatitis. The detection of antigens and antibodies associated with type A and type B infection may be accomplished by use of a wide range of techniques, all with varying capacities for use in a situation where a result is urgently required. The reverse passive haernagglutination test for surface antigen is one example of both a simple and sensitive test that may be employed for the rapid diagnosis of hepatitis B. One drawback, however, is the number of false positive results that occur resulting from species-specific red-cell agglutinins. Although dilution of commercially available turkey erythrocytes coated with specific antibody may increase the sensitivity of the test, lowering the cell concentration is reported to result in a correspondingly higher number of false positive results.