Comparison of latex agglutination test with an ELISA to diagnose rotavirus-associated diarrhoea in infants and young children.

An agglutination (LA) test, using latex beads sensitised with anti-rotavirus immunoglobulin G, was evaluated to detect human rotavirus in 200 stool specimens by comparing its results with those of an ELISA (Rotazyme, Abbott Laboratory, Diagnostic Div., North Chicago, IL). The specimens were collected from a systematic sample of 200 infants and pre-school children attending the Diarrhoeal Disease Research and Rehydration Centre at the Bab-El-Sha'reya University Hospital, Egypt. Of the 200 stool specimens tested, 79 were positive by the ELISA and 68 were positive by the LA test. Taking the ELISA as the standard, the LA test showed 11 false-negative and six false-positives giving a sensitivity and specificity of 86% and 95% respectively. Using 48 stool specimens positive for rotavirus by both the tests, the degree of positivity of the LA test roughly showed a linear relationship with the degree of rotazyme optical density. Thus, the simple and inexpensive LA test may be useful as a screening procedure to detect rotaviruses in the stools of children with diarrhoea.