Serology & Serological Test

Serology is the scientific study of plasma serum and other bodily fluids. In practice, the term usually refers to the diagnostic identification of antibodies in the serum.  Such antibodies are typically formed in response to an infection (against a given microorganism), against other foreign proteins (in response, for example, to a mismatched blood transfusion), or to one's own proteins (in instances of autoimmune disease).

Serological Test :

  

S.No.	Test	Used  For Diagnosis of
1.	Dick test	Scarlet Fever
2.	Schick test	Diphtheria
3.	Schultz-Charlton test	Scarlet Fever
4	Frei test	Lymphogranuloma inguinale
5	The Mantoux test	Tuberculosis
6	Ducrey’s test	Hemophilia
7	Widal test	Typhoid
8	Cold agglutinins blood test	Pneumonia
9	Paul-Bunnell test	Mononucleosis
10	Weil–Felix test	Typhoid fever
11	VDRL test	Syphilis
12	Kahn test	Syphilis
13	Wassermann test	Syphilis
14	Radial immunodiffusion	Influenza viruses
15	Elek test	Diphtheria bacilli
16	Rose-Waaler test	Rheumatoid Arthritis
17	Lepromin skin test	Leprosy
18	RIA	To detect human chronic gonadotrophin in serum of women as a test for pregnancy
19	ELISA	AIDS
20	Coombs test	Brucellosis
21	Ouchterlony	Small-pox
22	Tube agglutination	Typhoid, Brucillosis
23	Streptococcus  MG Agglutination Test	Atypical pneumonia

 

1. Dick test  an intracutaneous test for determination of susceptibility to scarlet fever.

2. Schick test a test for susceptibility to diphtheria by cutaneous injection of a diluted diphtheria toxin that causes an area of reddening and induration in susceptible individuals.

3. Schultz-Charlton test A skin test for the diagnosis of scarlet fever, performed by the intradermal injection of human scarlet fever immune serum; a positive reaction consists of blanching of the rash in the area surrounding the point of injection.

4. Frei test was developed in 1925 by Wilhelm Siegmund Frei, a German dermatologist, to identify lymphogranuloma inguinale. Antigen made from sterile pus aspirated from previously unruptured abscesses, produced a reaction in patients with lymphogranuloma inguinale when injected intradermally.

5. The Mantoux test or Mendel-Mantoux test (also known as the Mantoux screening test, tuberculin sensitivity test, Pirquet test, or PPD test for purified protein derivative) is a screening tool for tuberculosis (TB). It is one of the major tuberculin skin tests used around the world, largely replacing multiple-puncture tests such as the Tine test.   

6. Ducrey’s test An obsolete intradermal test of low specificity that used inactivated Haemophilus ducreyi  for the diagnosis of chancroid.

7. The Widal test is a presumptive serological test for enteric fever or undulant fever whereby bacteria causing typhoid fever are mixed with serum containing specific antibodies obtained from an infected individual. 

8. A cold agglutinins blood test is done to check for conditions that cause the body to make certain types of antibodies called cold agglutinins. Cold agglutinins are normally made by the immune system in response to infection. They cause red blood cells to clump together (agglutinate) at low temperatures.

Healthy people generally have low levels of cold agglutinins in their blood. But lymphoma or some infections, such as mycoplasma pneumonia, can cause the level of cold agglutinins to rise.

9. Paul-Bunnell test : a test for heterophile antibodies used in the diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis.

10. The Weil–Felix test is an agglutination test for the diagnosis of rickettsial infections. Weil-Felix is a nonspecific agglutination test which detects anti-rickettsial antibodies in patient’s serum. Weil-Felix test is based on cross-reactions which occur between antibodies produced in acute rickettsial infections with antigens of OX (OX  19, OX 2, and OXK) Strains of Proteus species.  Dilution of patient’s serum are tested against suspensions of the different Proteus strains.

11. The Venereal Disease Research Laboratory test (VDRL)  test: A blood test for syphilis that detects an antibody that is present in the bloodstream when a patient has syphilis. The VDRL test is used to screen for syphilis (it has high sensitivity), whereas other, more specific tests are used to diagnose the disease.

12. Kahn test a serum-precipitation reaction for the diagnosis of syphilis—called also Kahn, Kahn reaction. Kahn, Reuben Leon (1887–1979), American immunologist. Kahn's research on blood reactions led him to attempt an improvement of the Wassermann test for syphilis. He achieved success in 1923, publishing a description of his test (which yields quicker, more accurate results) in the same year. Later Kahn discovered that by adjusting the temperature, salt concentration, and serum dilution used in his test, the reaction could also indicate the presence of the agents of tuberculosis, malaria, or leprosy in the blood sample. He called this the universal serologic reaction and published an explanation of it in 1951.

13. The Wassermann test or Wassermann reaction (WR)  is an antibody test for syphilis, named after the bacteriologist August Paul von Wassermann, based on complement-fixation.

The Wassermann test has been refined - the Kahn test,   and the Kolmer test  - and it is rarely used today.

14. Radial immunodiffusion (or Mancini method, Mancini immunodiffusion, single radial immunodiffusion assay) is an immunodiffusion technique used in immunology to determine the quantity of an antigen by measuring the diameters of circles of precipitin complexes surrounding samples of the antigen that mark the boundary between the antigen and an antibody suspended in a medium, such as an agar gel.  The diameters of the circles increase with time as the antigen diffuses into the medium, reacts with the antibody, and forms insoluble precipitin complexes.

15. Elek's test, also known as the immuno diffusion technique, is an in vitro virulence test performed upon Corynebacteriumdiphtheriae. It is used to test for toxigenicity of C. diphtheriae.

16. Rose-Waaler test : a test of historical interest: when sheep red blood cells are coated with a concentration of antiserum to sheep red blood cells that is too low to cause agglutination, the addition of serum from a patient with rheumatoid arthritis will cause agglutination.

17. A lepromin skin test is used to determine the type of leprosy a patient has contracted. The lepromin skin test is also called the leprosy skin test.

The lepromin skin test is used to determine what type of leprosy a person has. It involves the injection of a standardized extract of the inactivated "leprosy bacillus",(Mycobacterium leprae or "Hansen's Bacillus") under the skin. It is not recommended as a primary mode of diagnosis.

Leprosy is a chronic condition caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae). 

18. Radioimmunoassay (RIA) is a very sensitive in vitro assay technique used to measure concentrations of antigens (for example, hormone levels in the blood) by use of antibodies. As such, it can be seen as the inverse of a radiobinding assay, which quantifies an antibody by use of corresponding antigens.

Although the RIA technique is extremely sensitive and extremely specific, requiring specialized equipment, it remains among the least expensive methods to perform such measurements. It requires special precautions and licensing, since radioactive substances are used.

The RAST test (radioallergosorbent test) is an example of radioimmunoassay. It is used to detect the causative allergen for an allergy.

19. The enzyme-linkedimmunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a test that uses antibodies and color change to identify a substance.

ELISA is a popular format of "wet-lab" type analytic biochemistry assay that uses a solid-phase enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presence of a substance, usually an antigen, in a liquid sample or wet sample.

20. A Coombs test (also known as Coombs' test, antiglobulin test or AGT) is either of two clinical blood tests used in immunohematology and immunology. The two Coombs tests are the direct Coombs test (DCT, also known as direct antiglobulin test or DAT), and the indirect Coombs test (also known as indirect antiglobulin test or IAT).

21. Ouchterlony double immunodiffusion (also known as agar gel immunodiffusion or passive double immunodiffusion) is an immunological technique used in the detection, identification and quantification of antibodies and antigens, such as immunoglobulins and extractable nuclear antigens.