Varicella-zoster virus IgG antibodies during primoinfection in competent and transfer factor modulated immunocompromised host: comparison of three indirect assays.

Ten patients with acute leukaemia and next three with Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, suffering from varicella-zoster-virus (VZV) primoinfection, were given 1 to 2 doses of ultrafiltrate of the human leukocytes lysate (LLU) containing transfer factor (TF) activity (1 dose being equivalent to the product of 10(8) leukocytes). Only LLU administered to patients with acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) at early phases of the illness (days 1 and 2) displayed a notable benefit on the clinical course of varicella. No influence upon the infection, on the other hand, was observed following LLU administration to subjects with lymphoma. The convalescent levels of IgG antibodies to VZV, as detected by indirect immunoperoxidase assay to membrane antigen (IPAMA), demonstrated no significant difference between infected competent and immunocompromised untreated and LLU treated individuals. The performance characteristics of IPAMA are compared with indirect immunofluorescence method (IFA) and non-competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) on the same panel of specimens.