Latex agglutination in diagnosis of bacterial infections, with special reference to patients with meningitis and septicemia.

Antibody-sensitized latex particles were used to demonstrate specific bacterial antigens in cerebrospinal fluid, blood and urine. Difficulties with reported nonspecific agglutinations appear to have been overcome. The method seems to be sensitive, specific, and simple to perform, and shows a better detection rate than culture or countercurrent immunoelectrophoresis. Urinary excretion of Haemophilus influenzae antigens was followed. The diagnostic usefulness of demonstrating such antigens at a later stage of disease is discussed.