Evaluation of latex-based heterophile antibody assay for diagnosis of acute infectious mononucleosis.

The diagnosis of an acute episode of infectious mononucleosis (IM) is made on the basis of clinical symptoms and serological evidence for development of heterophile antibodies. In an effort to obtain a very sensitive and specific assay for diagnosis of IM, we have developed MERISTAR:IM. The MERISTAR assay uses latex beads coated with purified bovine heterophile antigen. We compared the sensitivity and specificity and performance characteristics of the latex-based test to those of the commercially available erythrocyte-based Monospot test with serum samples from 363 suspected-IM patients and controls. A total of 28 samples from patients with confirmed IM were positive with the MERISTAR assay, while only 23 of the samples were positive with the Monospot assay. The two assays had equal specificity, as each test gave two false-positive results. In the technical performance of the assay, the MERISTAR assay was simpler and faster to perform than the Monospot assay.