Evaluation of a new optical immunoassay for diagnosis of neonatal chlamydial conjunctivitis.

The BioStar OIA Chlamydia test (BioStar, Inc., Boulder, Colo.) is a novel immunoassay system that uses changes in reflection of light to directly detect chlamydial antigen in clinical specimens. We compared the optical immunoassay (OIA) with culture for detecting Chlamydia trachomatis in ocular specimens from infants with suspected chlamydial conjunctivitis. We initially performed a retrospective evaluation, testing 152 ocular specimens previously collected for culture with the OIA. The sensitivity and specificity were 94.2 and 97%, respectively. A subsequent prospective study evaluating 37 ocular specimens from infants with suspected C. trachomatis conjunctivitis revealed a sensitivity and specificity of 100 and 92.6%, respectively.