Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis: detection of measles antibody in serum and cerebrospinal fluid by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, complement fixation and hemagglutination inhibition.

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a slowly progressive central nervous system disease, is related to the measles virus. Because laboratory immunoassays are important in the diagnosis of the disease, we compared enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), complement fixation (CF), and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) for the detection of measles antibody in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with SSPE and in controls. Differences in the sensitivity of the three methods were not observed in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid from patients because all specimens were positive, but ELISA and CF were more sensitive that HI for both serum and cerebrospinal fluid from controls. ELISA also distinguished between subacute sclerosing panencephalitis cases and controls with high measles antibody levels (acute measles). Thus, it appears that ELISA for measles antibody is superior to CF and HI in the laboratory diagnosis of SSPE and is the preferred method.