Evaluation of solid-phase immunofluorescence for quantitation of antibodies to herpes simplex virus and cytomegalovirus.

A recently developed semiautomated technique based on solid-phase immunofluorescence (FIAX) was compared with complement fixation for the determination of antibody levels to herpes simplex virus and cytomegalovorus in human serum samples. The results demonstrated that the FIAX method was in aggreement with the complement fixation technique for 97% of the serum samples tested. Reproducible titers were obtained from multiple FIAX determinations of representative sera within the same experimental run and between separate experimental runs. However, variability was rather high for patient sera with low (less than or equal to 1:5) antibody levels to cytomegalovirus. Hence, the results obtained by the FIAX technique were reproducible, and the FIAX system was as sensitive as complement fixation for the determination of antibody levels to herpes simplex virus and cytomegalovirus.