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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, 05 1997, 384-386, Vol 4, No. 3
Copyright © 1997 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Combined determination of Coxiella burnetii-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgA improves specificity in the diagnosis of acute Q fever

P Devine, C Doyle and G Lambkin
Clinical Sciences, University of Queensland, Herston, Australia.

Immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgA responses in patients with acute Q fever were compared by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. An increase in both IgM and IgA was observed in paired sera from all 19 patients with acute Q fever, and both IgM and IgA levels showed good correlation with complement fixation test titers. Paired sera from 23 patients with infections other than Q fever were also tested. IgM levels were elevated in three of these patients, while IgA levels were elevated in three different patients (87% specificity for either IgM or IgA). As no patients in the disease control group showed elevated levels of both IgM and IgA, definition of a positive result as elevated levels of both IgM and IgA improved specificity to 100% without a decrease in sensitivity. This study indicates that detection of specific IgA is a useful adjunct to that of IgM in the diagnosis of acute Q fever.

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