An acute serum is acquired if a patient is experiencing the

\"An acute serum is acquired if a patient is experiencing the stage of symptomatic (currently experiencing the symptoms of illness) for which bacterial/viral specific IgM can be measured. Where as, a convalescent serum is attained 1-2 weeks after the patient is has undergone the symptomatic phase (on the way to recovering).\" There are several types of serologic tests that can be used. Which serologic tests would you recommend and why? Explain.

Solution

A serology blood test is helpful to detect and measure the levels of antibodies in the patient’s serum when they gets exposed to a particular bacterial/viral infection. By knowing the antibody levels in the patients serum we can easily determine whether an infection occurred recently or it has occurred long back.

Today there are a number of serological tests are available which can detect antibodies.

Based on the antibodies being studied we can choose any of the following serological tests.

These include: ELISA, agglutination, precipitation, complement-fixation, Radioimmunoassay, Western Blot, Line immunoassay and fluorescent antibodies.

ELISA is one of the best technique which can be used to detect specific antibodies, and it can detect the exact quantities of antibody present in the given patients serum.

Western Blot is another technique which can accurately detect the presence of antibodies in the Patient’s serum.

Both the above techniques are commonly used as they are very specific and gives the accurate results.