Comparison of five assays for antibody to varicella-zoster virus and the fluorescent-antibody-to-membrane-antigen test.

Three commercially available assays (the Varicelisa Test Kit [Whittaker M.A. Bioproducts, Walkersville, Md.], the VZV Indirect Fluorescent-Antibody Test [Electro-Nucleonics, Inc., Columbia, Md.], and the Litton VZV Bio-EnzaBead Screen Kit [Litton Bionetics, Inc., Charleston, S.C.]) and two enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays used in our laboratory, one using a membrane-associated antigen and the other using a soluble antigen dotted on nitrocellulose paper, were compared with a varicella-zoster virus antibody reference assay, the fluorescent-antibody-to-membrane-antigen test. All of the assays compared favorably to the fluorescent-antibody-to-membrane-antigen test when evaluated for sensitivity (0.95), specificity (0.84), and test-retest reliability (79 to 96%), except for the Litton assay, which demonstrated significantly different results for all of the parameters tested (0.55, 1.0, and 69%, respectively).