Comparison of 4 commercial enzyme immunoassays for serology testing of human parvovirus B19 infection.

Van den Abeele, Tim; Delforge, Marie-Luce; Boel, An; Reynders, Marijke; Padalko, Elizaveta

BACKGROUND Parvovirus B19 is a pathogenic virus often diagnosed by serology, yet little is known about analytical performance of commercial enzyme immunoassays (EIAs). OBJECTIVE To investigate performance of 4 EIAs for parvovirus B19 IgM and IgG: Liaison, Euroimmun, Mikrogen and Virion/Serion. STUDY DESIGN To compare 4 EIAs to Biotrin's ELISA on 168 samples and determine consensus score for discordant samples using Mikrogen's confirmatory line assay. RESULTS Two thirds of results for IgM/IgG were identical for all 4 EIAs and Biotrin. Liaison shows the highest IgM sensitivity, but has low specificity. Euroimmun lacks IgM sensitivity. Mikrogen had a good overall performance, but had the lowest IgG specificity. Virion/Serion had variable performance with a low IgM specificity and the most borderline and cross-reactive results. CONCLUSIONS Liaison and Mikrogen have similar performance to Biotrin's ELISA. Euroimmun lacks sensitivity and Virion/Serion produced many borderline and cross-reactive results.