Cells (Jun 2012)

Can ELISPOT Be Applied to A Clinical Setting as A Diagnostic Utility for Neuroborreliosis?

  • Ingvar Eliasson,
  • Christina Ekerfelt,
  • Jan Ernerudh,
  • Clara Nyberg,
  • Barbro H. Skogman,
  • Dag Nyman,
  • Pia Forsberg,
  • Marika Nordberg

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/cells1020153
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 1, no. 2
pp. 153 – 167

Abstract

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The aim of this prospective study was to investigate the diagnostic performance of Borrelia (Bb)-induced interferon (IFN)-γ secretion detected by ELISPOT modified to be feasible for clinical laboratories as a supplementary test to the laboratory diagnosis of Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) in an endemic setting. Between 2002 and 2004, patients with symptoms of suspected clinical LNB were included in a study conducted on the Åland islands in the Finnish archipelago, which is a hyper-endemic area for Lyme borreliosis (LB). Fourteen patients with confirmed LNB and 103 patients with non-LNB were included, and the numbers of spontaneous and Bb-induced IFN-γ-secreting cells were assayed by the ELISPOT test. The ELISPOT assay showed a weak diagnostic performance with a sensitivity of 36% and a specificity of 82%. The findings in this study show that this ELISPOT-assay modified to be feasible in clinical routine laboratories is not useful as a supplementary diagnostic tool in the laboratory diagnosis of patients with clinically suspected LNB.

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