COMPARISON OF GEL PRECIPITIN AND SENSITIZED ERYTHROCYTE TECHNIQUES FOR THE DETECTION OF ANTIBODY IN THE SERUM OF TUBERCULOUS AND NONTUBERCULOUS PATIENTS

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Abstract
Serum from 276 tuberculous and nontuberculous subjects was tested for antibody by the double-diffusion gel precipitin technique. Unheated, concentrated culture filtrates of the H37Ra or H37RV strains of tubercle bacilli were employed as antigens. Fifty-nine of 73 specimens of serum (81%) from cases of active far advanced tuberculosis and 79 of 120 specimens (66%) from all cases of active tuberculosis tested gave positive gel precipitin reactions. Seventeen per cent of 70 specimens of serum from nontuberculous subjects gave positive reactions. Approximately the same number of positive reactions occurred when the serum was tested with sheep erythrocytes sensitized with Trudeau OT diluted 1:15, although the same serum specimens did not necessarily react in both tests. Comparative tests demonstrated that the different antigen preparations were comparable in gel precipitin reactivity, but varied in their erythrocyte-sensitizing activity. The results are considered to be consistent with the known presence of cross-reactive antigens in mycobacterial culture filtrates.