Comparison of Different Laboratory Methods for Clinical Detection of Brucella Infection

The rapidity, accuracy, and detection abilities of different laboratory methods (tube agglutination test (SAT), indirect ELISA, fluorescence polarization test (FPA), and blood culture methods) to detect Brucella in the laboratory. The study included 95 patients with documented and 42 patients with suspected brucellosis and 56 healthy control subjects. For the tests, the positive rates of Brucella infection detection in the confirmed group were significantly higher than in group with suspected infection (p<0.01) and in healthy controls (p<0.01). There was no significant difference between indirect ELISA and FPA in detecting antibodies to Brucella in acute (chi(2)=0.335), subacute (chi(2)=0.660), and chronic cases (chi(2)=5.332). Among the detection methods, indirect ELISA showed the highest sensitivity (98.9%), specificity (100%), and Youden index (0.989). The sensitivity and specificity of FPA were 96.8 and 96.4%, respectively. In order to easily and rapidly diagnose brucellosis in clinical practice, a combination of detection methods is recommended, in which Brucella antibodies are screened by FPA and then confirmed by indirect ELISA.