Among many reported applications of detection of antibodies to phenolic glycolipid-I (PGL-I) of Mycobacterium leprae, seroprevalence may turn out to be very useful as an indicator of the magnitude of leprosy problem in its control program. Recently, simple tests for the detection of antibodies to PGL-I have been developed. As an effort to assess meaning of qualitative test for anti-PGL-I antibodies, we compared enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and an immunochromatographic assay (ICA) using PGL-I neoglycoconjugate antigens for detection of antibodies in sera from 165 leprosy patients and 746 healthy controls. The upper limit of normal control O.D. in ELISA was 0.236, and the sensitivity of ICA was 56.4%, and its specificity was 93.9%.
Antibodies* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Immunochromatography* ; Leprosy* ; Mass Screening* ; Mycobacterium leprae ; Phenol ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Seroepidemiologic Studies ; Serologic Tests*