%0 Journal Article %A De la fuente, L. %A Anda, P. %A Rodriguez, I. %A Hechemy, K. E. %A Raoult, D. %A Casal, J. %T Evaluation of a latex agglutination test for Rickettsia conorii antibodies in seropositive patients %D 1989 %J Journal of Medical Microbiology, %V 28 %N 1 %P 69-72 %@ 1473-5644 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/00222615-28-1-69 %I Microbiology Society, %X Summary A latex agglutination test for antibodies to Rickettsia conorii was compared with micro-immunofluorescence (the reference test for total antibodies); 179 sera were from 115 confirmed cases of Mediterranean Spotted Fever, and 101 were from pregnant women (control group) who had no detectable antibodies by the reference method. The micro-immunofluorescence test for specific IgM antibodies was used to clarify some discordant results. The agreement obtained between latex-R. conorii and micro-immunofluorescence was 95%. Sensitivity and specificity were 96% and 93% respectively. When micro-immunofluorescence results for specific IgM antibodies were included, these figures rose to 96 and 99%, and agreement was almost 97%. Latex agglutination is a simpler and more rapid technique than micro-immunofluorescence and is suitable for the screening as well as for the titration of R. conorii antibodies. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-28-1-69