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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, July 2004, p. 786-788, Vol. 11, No. 4
1071-412X/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.11.4.786-788.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Comparison of Immunofluorescence, Western Blotting, and Cross-Adsorption Assays for Diagnosis of African Tick Bite Fever

Departments of Internal Medicine,¹ Bacteriology, Aker University Hospital,⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases, Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo, Norway,⁵ Unité des Rickettsies, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France,² Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna, Sweden³

Received 10 January 2004/ Returned for modification 18 February 2004/ Accepted 30 March 2004

In testing paired serum samples from 40 consecutive cases of African tick bite fever, we detected diagnostic antibodies against spotted fever group rickettsiae in 45% of the patients by immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and in 100% of the patients by Western blotting (WB) (P < 0.01). A specific diagnosis of Rickettsia africae infection could be established in 15% of the patients by IFA and in 73% of the patients by a combination of WB and cross-adsorption assays (P < 0.01).