Cost benefit of detection and treatment patients with tuberculosis in Ivanovo region, Russian Federation

Antigen and antibody detection in EIA is a good tool in diagnosing HAV infections, especially in their differentiation from other hepatitides. Commercial kits containing polyclonal antibodies and murine MAbs to identify HAV are now available. Rat MAbs have not been assayed so far. Peroxidase-labelled rat MAbs and purified rat MAbs as antigen capture were used to modify commercial "VectoHep A-IgM" and "VectorHep A-Ag" kits. The results obtained with modified "VectoHep A-IgM" and "VectorHep A-Ag" kits with labelled rat MAbs suggest that labelled rat MAbs can increase the sensitivity and specificity of EIA. MAbs used as antigen capture and labelled antibodies permit at least an 8-fold increase in sensitivity as compared to polyclonal antibodies. The modified "VectorHep A-Ag" kit with labelled rat MAbs provided 100% sensitivity and specificity in EIA. The modified "VectorHep A-Ag" kit also allowed the authors to determine viral antigens in the cell lysate, homogenates of the infected monkey liver, stools from patients, and sewage water samples. The rat MAbs modified kits can be recommended for using in epidemiological and clinical studies of HAV infections.