Comparison of 4 commercial enzyme immunoassays for serology testing of human parvovirus B19 infection.

Background: Parvovirus B19 is a pathogenic virus often diagnosed by serology, yet little is known about analytical performance of commercial enzyme immunoassays (EIAs).

Objective: To investigate performance of 4 EIAs for parvovirus B19 IgM and IgG: Liaison, Euroimmun, Mikrogen and Virion/Serion.

Methods: To compare 4 EIAs to Biotrin's ELISA on 168 samples and determine consensus score for discordant samples using Mikrogen's confirmatory line assay.

Results: Two thirds of results for IgM/IgG were identical for all 4 EIAs and Biotrin. Liaison shows the highest IgM sensitivity, but has low specificity. Euroimmun lacks IgM sensitivity. Mikrogen had a good overall performance, but had the lowest IgG specificity. Virion/Serion had variable performance with a low IgM specificity and the most borderline and cross-reactive results.

Conclusions: Liaison and Mikrogen have similar performance to Biotrin's ELISA. Euroimmun lacks sensitivity and Virion/Serion produced many borderline and cross-reactive results.