LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Mononucleosis: Antibodies
built 290 days ago
Heterophil tests — Mononucleosis causes white blood cells to make an unusual kind of antibody called heterophil antibody. Few other conditions cause this antibody to be produced. It can be measured using several different tests called heterophil tests. The traditional heterophil test usually takes one to two days. Newer tests give more rapid results, without sacrificing accuracy. For that reason, they are used more often.
Source:
Rapid slide agglutination tests, including Monospot assays, have been developed to measure acute infectious mononucleosis heterophile antibodies in a rapid qualitative fashion. Slide tests use either horse RBCs or bovine RBCs. Horse RBCs are more sensitive than sheep RBCs or bovine RBCs and can be treated with formalin to extend the shelf life of the test. Bovine RBCs are specific for acute infectious mononucleosis heterophile antibodies and... do not require differential absorption.
Source:
Monolatex, Mono-Latex, Mono-Lex, Mono-Plus and Clearview IM can be recommended for the confirmation of EB-virus-associated infectious mononucleosis. Clearview IM combined a high sensitivity and specificity with very simple one-step solid-phase-based procedure. IM-Check had a low sensitivity and was difficult to read. Compared with the reference methods, the sensitivities and specificities of these heterophile antibody test kits were 70-92% and 96-100%, respectively.
Source:
Antibodies other than those produced during acute infectious mononucleosis can agglutinate sheep RBCs. Such antibodies include those formed in serum sickness and during drug reactions and naturally occurring antibodies to the Forssman antigen.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Antibodies