RESUMO
The authors compared two groups of 20 patients suffering from Q fever using microimmunofluorescence (micro IF) serology. One group had endocarditis and the other conventional symptoms of acute Q fever but no endocarditis. Determination of the levels of antibodies against the two phases of rickettsiae in each of the three immunoglobulin classes (IgG, IgM and IgA), allowed to determine the type of infection using a single serum sample. Patients having IgA class antiphase I antibodies at a level equal to/or higher than 1:25 as well as those whose antibody levels fulfilled the conditions for the equation (IgG anti-phase I greater than or equal to IgG anti-phase II) + (IgA anti-phase I greater than or equal to IgA anti-phase II) were suffering from endocarditis. The positive predictive value of these tests was 100% and 94.1%, respectively.
Assuntos
Endocardite Bacteriana/diagnóstico , Febre Q/diagnóstico , Adolescente , Adulto , Idoso , Anticorpos Antibacterianos/análise , Pré-Escolar , Coxiella/imunologia , Endocardite Bacteriana/etiologia , Endocardite Bacteriana/imunologia , Feminino , Imunofluorescência , Humanos , Imunoglobulina A/análise , Imunoglobulina G/análise , Imunoglobulina M/análise , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Febre Q/complicações , Febre Q/imunologia , Testes SorológicosRESUMO
Most monoclonal antibodies recognize antigens which do not survive conventional tissue processing: the use of frozen tissue sections and the immunofluorescence method overcome this obstacle but introduce other problems. Three improvements are reported here: the use of serum-free (substitute) "Ultroser Hy" as a culture medium for hybridomas, in order to diminish background staining and the diffusion artifact; the use of freon for freezing tissue sections, so as to slightly increase cellular morphology and staining; the use of a new immunofluorescent slide-mounting medium to enhance histologic preservation and immunohistologic contrast and to diminish fading of immunofluorescence.