Abstract
This paper introduces the clinical use of coagglutination as a method for the rapid detection of pneumococcal antigens in patients with community-acquired pneumonia and compares it with the sputum Gram stain and culture methods. Among 105 patients, 50 (48%) were diagnosed as having pneumococcal pneumonia by at least one of the three methods. Of 95 sputa tested, 44 (46%) were found to be positive by the coaggulation test, 26 (27%) by Gram staining and only 16 (17%) by the bacterial culture method. The rate of detection of pneumococcal antigens was thus greater with coaggulation than with either of the other two methods. The differences were very significant (bothP<0.01). Our study indicates that the advantages of coagglutination over the traditional bacteriological methods are its speed, sensitivity, convenience and also its relative independence of antibiotic therapy. It thus provides a new dimension in the aetiological diagnosis of pneumococcal pneumonia.
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Zhang, X., Deng, K., Ye, Y. et al. Rapid detection of pneumococcal antigens in sputa in patients with community-acquired pneumonia by coagglutination. Med Microbiol Immunol 177, 333–338 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02389905
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02389905