Abstract
The nonspecific and protean presentation of brucellosis and what it can entail from a wide range of differential diagnosis necessitate the resort to Brucella-specific laboratory tests to help in reaching an accurate diagnosis. For this purpose, several test formats are available including culture, agglutination, ELISA, and molecular tests. Knowledge is necessary for the understanding of the usefulness and limitations of the laboratory tests for accurate interpretation of their results as correlates with the clinical stage of the disease. The simultaneous use of test combination that detects agglutinating and non-agglutinating antibodies is recommended to definitively exclude Brucella spp. infection especially in complicated, focal, or chronic presentation. As will be discussed in this chapter, the Brucella-specific laboratory tests are crucial for the diagnosis of brucellosis in humans.
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Abbreviations
- CNS:
-
Central nervous system
- CSF:
-
Cerebrospinal fluid
- ELISA:
-
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
- IgA:
-
Immunoglobulin A
- IgG:
-
Immunoglobulin G
- IgM:
-
Immunoglobulin M
- PCR:
-
Polymerase chain reaction
- (RT)-PCR:
-
Real-time PCR
- SAT:
-
Serum agglutination test
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Araj, G.F. (2016). Standard and New Laboratory Procedures in Neurobrucellosis. In: Turgut, M., Haddad, F., de Divitiis, O. (eds) Neurobrucellosis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24639-0_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24639-0_19
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