Abstract:

THE DETERMINATION of antistrep- tolysin 0 (ASO) in patients’ sera is most commonly performed as an aid in the diag- nosis of streptococcal infection and their sequelae.’ However, because of the differences in immune responses to a variety of streptococcal exoproducts in rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis, it is advantageous to measure the level of more than one antis trep tococcal antibody, particularly in patients with low or borderline ASO levels. 2.3 The recently developed streptozyme test (A-STZ)l is a two-minute slide hemagglutina- tion procedure which quantitatively meas- ures multiple antibodies to streptococcal exracellular products. The reagents are sheep red blood cells sensitized simultaneously with streptolysin 0 (SLO), deoxyribonuclease B (DNase B), hyaluronidase (H), streptokinase (SK), and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide glycohydrolase (NADG). A good correlation betweenA-STZandASOinseraofrheumatic fever patients has been demonstrated. In a comparative study’ of the STZ test with titers obtained with three of the antibody tests, ASO, ADNase B, and AH, the useful- ness of the streptozyme test for laboratories which perform only the ASO test has been demonstrated. Similar conclusions were drawn in a comparative study in our laboratory. his report deals with three main topics: 1) the streptozyme studies done in our laboratories on four of human categories sera: control group, acute pyodermal ne- tients and acute rheumatic fever patients; 2) the reproducibility and specificity of the streptozyme test; and 3) the development of ASTZ in rabbits immunized with nonviable and viable streptococci.