Laboratory method | Reported sensitivity* | Reported specificity* | Comments |
Culture of nasopharyngeal secretions | 20 to 80% (decreases with increasing duration of cough) | 100% |
|
Polymerase chain reaction of nasopharyngeal secretions¶ | 61 to 94% | 88 to 98% |
|
Serology (ELISA) blood | 60 to 95% | Δ |
|
CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; ELISA: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; FDA: US Food and Drug Administration.
* Reported sensitivities and specificities taken from clinical or epidemiologic studies or vaccine trials.
¶ Compared with clinical case definitions+serology in most studies.
Δ Not readily available from epidemiologic studies. An investigation in German adults found a specificity of 84% using a clinician's clinical diagnosis as a gold standard (Schmitt-Grohé S, Cherry JD, Heininger U, et al. Pertussis in German adults. Clin Infect Dis 1995; 21:860).Do you want to add Medilib to your home screen?