Comparison of three automated immunoassay methods for the determination of Epstein-Barr virus-specific immunoglobulin M.

In this study we compared the performances of three commercially available Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) immunoglobulin M (IgM) assays on highly automated immunoassay platforms: BioPlex 2200 (Bio-Rad Laboratories), Immulite 2000 (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics), and Liaison (DiaSorin). As a confirmatory method, immunoblotting was performed. The specificity of the three EBV IgM assays was evaluated by testing 293 selected sera from patients with various infectious and noninfectious diseases. After the exclusion of 30 samples, the specificities were 96.2% for Liaison, 98.1% for Immulite, and 97.0% for BioPlex. For evaluation of the sensitivity, samples from 70 consecutive patients with a positive heterophile antibody test were examined, irrespective of clinical or biological findings. After the exclusion of six samples, the sensitivities were 89.1% for Liaison, 84.4% for Immulite, and 89.1% for BioPlex. Finally, in a prospective study performed with 500 samples obtained from consecutive patients and sent in by general practitioners, we also determined Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen IgG and viral capsid antigen IgG in a two-phase approach. Concordance of the EBV serologic status was 96.2% between Liaison and Immulite, 96.4% between Immulite and BioPlex, and 97.8% between BioPlex and Liaison. The three EBV IgM immunoassays that we evaluated have acceptable and comparable performances.