Evaluation of a new tube latex agglutination test for detection of type-specific pneumococcal antigens in urine.

A modified tube agglutination test using type-specific latex reagents for detection of pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide antigens in alkalinized, unconcentrated urine samples was evaluated in reconstituted urine samples and in groups consisting of 26 children with clinical and roentgenographic evidence of acute lower respiratory tract infection, six patients with blood culture-proven infection of nonpneumococcal etiology, and 30 healthy individuals. The sensitivity of the tube latex agglutination method for pneumococcal polysaccharides was 2 to 10 times higher than that of the slide agglutination method. Positive antigen findings were obtained for 42% of urine samples from patients with acute lower respiratory tract infection but in neither patients with nonpneumococcal septicemia nor healthy controls. Fifty-five percent of the antigen-positive patients also showed evidence of pneumococcal involvement by pneumococcal antibody assay or antigen detection in acute-phase serum.