Resumo

MARTINEZ SALGUEIRO, Beatriz et al. Lepto tek lateral flow: a method for the rapid diagnosis of human leptospirosis in Cuba. Rev Cubana Hig Epidemiol [online]. 2005, vol.43, n.1, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3003.

The Lepto Tek Lateral Flow technique (LF) in the serological and rapid diagnosis of severe cases with clinical and epidemiological suspicion of human leptospirosis was introduced in and applied by the National Laboratory of Leptospirosis Reference (NLLR). Conventional lab techniques (microagglutination MAT and indirect hemagglutination HA ) were used in the confirmation of cases under study, 40 serum samples corresponding to 33 patients suspected of human leptospirosis were studied. Of them, 21 samples proved to be positive by LF, accounting for 52.5 %. On comparatively applying the LF and HA techniques to 26 monosera and 7 pairs of serum, 11 and 5 positive cases were obtaind, respectively. The coincidence between them was 73 % on studying monosera and 71.0 on studying the pairs of serum. On applying MAT to 9 suspected cases, 7 of them yielded positive. The most frequently found serogroups were: Icterohaemorrhagiae and Canicola. Only 5 positive cases were detected by the 3 applied techniques. The coincidence between MAT and LF techniques was 89 % and that between HA and MAT was 100.0. The application of MAT and HA offered reliability to the obtained results and it was evidenced the high sensitivity of LF. The importance of the use of matched sera for the accurate diagnosis of this disease was demonstrated.

Palavras-chave : Leptospirosis; diagnosis; serology.