Evaluation of clinical specimens for the presence of respiratory syncytial virus antigens using an enzyme immunoassay.

An enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA) was developed for the detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) antigen in nasopharyngeal secretions. This assay, which employs goat and rabbit anti-RSV as the capture and detector antibodies respectively, was used in a retrospective evaluation of frozen clinical specimens from children. The EIA results were compared with those of virus isolation in cell culture and direct fluorescent antibody staining performed at the time of specimen collection. The sensitivity of the RSV EIA compared to cell culture was 91.3% (63/69) with a specificity of 96.8% (93/96). The predictive value of a positive EIA result was 95.4% and for a negative EIA result, 93.9%. The sensitivity of the RSV-EIA compared to direct FA was 91.5% (43/47) with a specificity of 96.5% (83/86). These data represent the preclinical evaluation of the Abbott RSV-EIA. This assay could prove to be a useful alternative to virus isolation or direct FA for the diagnosis of RSV infection.