Comparison of an in-house latex agglutination test with IgM ELISA and MAT in the diagnosis of leptospirosis

The laboratory diagnosis of leptospirosis is fraught with several problems. Isolation of Leptospira by culture has a low sensitivity and the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) is time consuming To overcome these problems, a rapid latex agglutination test (LAT) has been standardized for the detection of antileptospiral antibodies in serum samples from suspected cases of leptospirosis. We compared the efficiency of the LAT to a commercially available IgM ELISA and MAT. A total of 150 serum samples were tested by LAT, IgM ELISA, and MAT. The positivity was 26.7%, 26% and 24% respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of LAT as compared to MAT was 90.62 and 91.96% respectively. Even though LAT and ELISA showed similar results, its rapidity and simplicity made latex agglutination test more suitable as a rapid screening test.