The performance of two new commercial assays for the serological diagnosis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection (microparticle agglutination and antibody-capture enzyme-immunoassay) was studied using a panel of 169 serum samples from patients with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia and a control group. Both assays were shown to be sensitive and specific for diagnosis. The performance of the capture immunoassay, however, decreased in older patients, probably due to its inability to detect cases of reinfection without IgM antibody response.

Most neonates are unprotected against pertussis and pertussis infections are frequent in pregnant women in Catalonia. Infants and pregnant women should be the priority population groups for pertussis prevention programs in Catalonia.

In the context of measles elimination, the identification of recent infections is important for clinical laboratories. Serological diagnosis is achieved by detecting specific IgG and IgM. Recently an automated chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA) (Liaison, DiaSorin, Italy) has been used to quantify the measles antibody. The aim of this study was to compare this assay with Enzygnost ELISA (Siemens, Germany), with final classification of discrepancies by indirect immunofluorescence (Euroimmun, Germany). For measles IgM, 204 sera were analyzed: 50 IgM-positive, 104 IgM-negative/IgG-positive, and 50 from other viral infections (B19V, rubella, mumps, CMV, and EBV). For the measles IgG assay, 162 samples were tested: 106 were positive and 56 were negative. For measles IgM, the sensitivity and specificity of CLIA against ELISA were 94% (95% CI: 83.2-98.6) and 100% (95% CI: 97.1-100), respectively; the corrected figures after the final classification of discrepancies were 100% (95% CI: 91.0-100) and 99.4% (95% CI: 96.1-100), respectively. In relation to IgG, the sensitivity and specificity of CLIA against ELISA were, respectively, 97.2% (95% CI: 91.7-99.4) and 92.9% (95% CI: 82.5-97.7), and 95.5% (95% CI: 89.5-98.3) and 100% (95% CI: 91.8-100) after the final classification. CLIA showed excellent sensitivity and specificity in detecting measles IgG and IgM antibodies, eliminating the need to aliquot specimens before carrying out the assay.

Background Serology for type‐specific herpes simplex virus (HSV) is based on the use of the respective glycoprotein G (gG). Methods Chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA; BIO‐FLASH®, Biokit, Spain), ELISA (HerpeSelect®, Focus, USA), and immunoblot (IB; Virotech, Germany) for detecting HSV‐1‐ and HSV‐2‐specific IgG were compared using 384 serum samples received for HSV serology. The samples were classified as positive or negative according to a consensus criterion. Results For HSV‐1, 262 samples were positive and 118 were negative (four samples were unclassifiable). IB showed agreement, sensitivity, and specificity values of 98.68%, 98.47% and 99.15%, respectively. The corresponding figures for CLIA and ELISA were 98.95%, 99.24% and 98.31%, and 98.16%, 99.62% and 94.92%, respectively. For HSV‐2, 106 samples were positive and 278 were negative. Agreement, sensitivity, and specificity of IB were 99.48%, 98.11%, and 100%, respectively. The corresponding figures for CLIA and ELISA were 99.48%, 99.06% and 99.64%, and 98.18%, 99.06% and 97.84%, respectively. Conclusion The three methods showed excellent and equivalent performance characteristics for the detection of type‐specific IgG to HSV‐1 and HSV‐2.