Immunofluorescent antibody test for diagnosis of gonorrhoea

Abstract

An indirect fluorescent antibody test was evaluated in 198 cases of a high-risk group with a culture prevalence of 37.3% and in 426 cases of a low-risk group with a culture prevalence of 1.16%. A sensitivity of 77.1% in the culture-positive patients with uncomplicated gonorrhoea, and a specificity of 88.7% in the culture- and history-negative cases, was obtained in the high-risk group. In this group, the sera from 88.8% of the patients with culture-proven gonorrhoea became positive in an indirect fluorescent antibody test within 3 weeks of last sexual contact. In the low-risk group, for which the sensitivity could not be determined due to various reasons, a specificity of 95.8% was obtained. Complement fixation test was positive in sera of only 17.6% of the culture-positive cases of the high-risk group.