© 1974 British Society for Rheumatology
research-article |
AN EVALUATION OF A NEW HAEMAGGLUTINATION TEST FOR RHEUMATOID FACTORS*
Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, and th Department of Parthology, East Glamorgan Hospital Church Village
There is a need for a reliable, rapidly performed screening test for rheumatoid factors. The "Rheumaton" slide test fulfils these criteria, showing a false negative rate of less than 1% using a DAT titre of 1 : 32 as the standard of positivity.
INFLAMMATORY arthritis or merely arthralgia are common clinical problems in which the presence or absence of rheumatoid factors (RF) in the sera is a valuable aid to diagnosis. The present available tests all involve the agglutination of sensitized particulate bodies, those usually employed being latex particles and erythrocytes. It is common laboratory practice to employ a latex slide test in addition to either a latex serial dilution test or a sheep-cell agglutination test, usually one of the modifications of the original Rose test (Rose et al., 1948), or DAT. Performance of both these serial dilution tests is time-consuming, and often sera are stored for a batch of tests performed once a week. In the case of the DAT there can be difficulties in obtaining fresh erythrocytes, particularly over holiday periods. These factors often cause considerable delay before the results become available to the clinician.
There is need for a simple, reliable screening test for RF to save laboratory time and give a speedy result to the clinician.
*Paper read at a combined meeting of the British Association for Rheumatology and Rehabilitation with the Royal Society of Medicine, Section of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Cardiff, September 1973.