ABSTRACT
Determination of teichoic acid antibodies by Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was done in 39 patients with Staphylococcus aureus infections and 151 patients who did not have a history of serious staphylococcal infections. The latter who were treated for other diseases served as controls. Various levels of teichoic acid antibodies below 1:3,200 were detected in controls while significantly higher levels were seen in patients with Staphylococcus aureus infections.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , Evaluation Studies as Topic , Humans , Immunoglobulin G/blood , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Sensitivity and Specificity , Staphylococcal Infections/blood , Teichoic Acids/immunology , Thailand/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Antiribitol-teichoic acid antibody (ARTA) was detected in sera of 30 out of 50 patients (60%) with various acute deep seated Staphylococcus aureus infections and 5 out of 10 chronic osteomyelitis cases, whereas none of the sera from 50 patients with superficial Staphylococcus aureus infections as well from 50 patients without Staphylococcus aureus infections showed antibody response (p less than 0.01). This test is a definite advantage in diagnosis of deep seated staphylococcal infections like endocarditis, lung disease, meningitis and specially in osteomyelitis cases where organisms cannot be isolated and therefore helps in predicting the need for long term antimicrobial therapy.