02751nas a2200409   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653002600055653002400081653002600105653002500131653003800156653001600194653001100210653001600221653002100237653001200258653002800270653002500298653003100323653003200354100002200386700001400408700002000422700001400442700001300456700001500469700001600484700001200500245014600512856006900658300001100727490000700738050002200745520156000767022001402327       2003                            d  c2003 May10aAntibodies, Bacterial10aAntigens, Bacterial10aCarbohydrate Sequence10aCase-Control Studies10aEnzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay10aGlycolipids10aHumans10aImmunoassay10aImmunoglobulin M10aleprosy10aMolecular Sequence Data10aMycobacterium leprae10aReproducibility of Results10aSensitivity and Specificity1 aBührer-Sékula S1 aSmits H L1 aGussenhoven G C1 aLeeuwen J1 aAmador S1 aFujiwara T1 aKlatser P R1 aOskam L00aSimple and fast lateral flow test for classification of leprosy patients and identification of contacts with high risk of developing leprosy.  uhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC154748/pdf/1775.pdf  a1991-50 v41  aBUHRERSEKULA 20033 a<p>The interruption of leprosy transmission is one of the main challenges for leprosy control programs since no consistent evidence exists that transmission has been reduced after the introduction of multidrug therapy. Sources of infection are primarily people with high loads of bacteria with or without clinical signs of leprosy. The availability of a simple test system for the detection of antibodies to phenolic glycolipid-I (PGL-I) of Mycobacterium leprae to identify these individuals may be important in the prevention of transmission. We have developed a lateral flow assay, the ML Flow test, for the detection of antibodies to PGL-I which takes only 10 min to perform. An agreement of 91% was observed between enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and our test; the agreement beyond chance (kappa value) was 0.77. We evaluated the use of whole blood by comparing 539 blood and serum samples from an area of high endemicity. The observed agreement was 85.9% (kappa = 0.70). Storage of the lateral flow test and the running buffer at 28 degrees C for up to 1 year did not influence the results of the assay. The sensitivity of the ML Flow test in correctly classifying MB patients was 97.4%. The specificity of the ML Flow test, based on the results of the control group, was 90.2%. The ML Flow test is a fast and easy-to-perform method for the detection of immunoglobulin M antibodies to PGL-I of M. leprae. It does not require any special equipment, and the highly stable reagents make the test robust and suitable for use in tropical countries.</p>  a0095-1137