One of the major causes of death in the world is infectious diseases (ID).

The growth of ID incidence has lead to continuous request for novel diagnostic tests to new agents and improvement of performance of the ones already on the market.

In addition, the increased number of diagnostic tests to be performed everyday in a routine lab has elicited the demand of tests easy to be perform and quick in providing results for faster diagnosis and therapy.

In management of infectious diseases, availability of an adequate panel of serological markers for different infectious agents is of paramount importance.

Infectious disease serology

Infectious disease serology means determination of antibodies to different pathogens with the following aims:

to assess the presence of ongoing infection or to follow
    progression of the disease (IgG and IgM determination)

to assess the immune status (IgG determination only).

The use of some assays has become particularly important after implementation of screening programs in a number of Countries to identify pregnant women at risk of foeto-maternal infections caused by hCMV, Toxoplasma, Rubella and Herpes simplex viruses (the so-called TORCH panel) and to monitor the outcome once disease is recognized.

Infection with TORCH organisms frequently causes only mild maternal infection, but can result in serious consequences for the foetus.

For this reason performance of serological tests is extremely important for accurate diagnosis and correct clinical management of patients.

To improve serological diagnosis, measurement of IgG avidity has recently been introduced to stage the infection and calculate the risk to the foetus. The IgG avidity test is particularly useful when diagnosis must be established during pregnancy. To distinguish between ongoing and past infection avoids anxiety and unnecessary treatment, in the case of Toxoplasma infection.

Besides pregnant women and newborn populations, another important category is the immunosuppressed patients where the assessment of immune status may be fundamental. Infectious serology can be of help in these patients also to monitor the course of disease during immunosuppressive therapy.

Other serological markers (antibodies to EBV, VZV, Borrelia burgdorferi, Treponema pallidum, measles and mumps viruses, Chlamydia, Parvovirus B19, Mycoplasma pneumoniae) are of paramount importance to establish accurate diagnosis, even though prevalence and morbidity of the latter diseases are much lower than those of the former ones.

Hepatitis serology

In the case of viral hepatitis, differential diagnosis is needed most of the times.

Research of antibodies to the different hepatitis viruses allows identification of the etiological agent in patients showing typical symptoms of hepatitis.

Progression and staging of HBV infection can be followed precisely through evaluation of the serological profile of up to six different serological markers (HBsAg, anti-HBc, HBeAg, HBc IgM, anti-HBe, anti-HBs):

Incubation phase

Acute infection

Convalescent phase

Chronic infection

Diasorin, a worldwide leader in the field of infectious disease and hepatitis testing for many years, offers an extensive range of reliable, fully automated chemiluminescent assays that allow quicker and more accurate diagnosis of patients, and are suitable for laboratories and hospitals of all sizes.

In the past three years, Diasorin has launched a broad array of new products for diagnosis of infectious diseases, including nearly 30 assays in the innovative LIAISON® format.

Most efforts in developing LIAISON® menu have been dedicated to ID serology testing, including a complete TORCH panel (Toxoplasma,Rubella virus, Cytomegalovirus and Herpes virus), pstein-Barr virus panel (VCA, EBNA and EA), Treponema pallidum, Borrelia burgdorferi and Varicella-Zoster virus. In addition to the broad serology panel, Diasorin offers a complete range of fully automated hepatitis assays for diagnosis of viral hepatitis A and B. Some LIAISON® tests are currently unique to a closed, fully automated, random-access system (EBV, Herpes simplex, Borrelia burgdorferi, Varicella-Zoster virus).

The same variety of products has been manufactured for years in microplate ELISA format and implemented with the distribution of an extensive list of other serology assays. Complementary to the conventional serology testing currently available on the market, Diasorin has developed a new line of LIAISON® premium assays allowing reliable diagnosis by dating the time of infection based on the avidity maturation of immunoglobulin G, that occurs over time. Simultaneous testing for IgG, IgM and IgG avidity always yields to the most reliable results. With LIAISON® Instrument IgG avidity tests are available for the first time on a fully automated platform.

All Diasorin infectious disease products are registered in compliance with the European CE mark rules and/or are FDA-approved in the U.S. (ELISA Viral Hepatitis, ELISA and LIAISON® EBV, LIAISON® hCMV).

Learn more...
Toxoplasma
Rubella virus
Cytomegalovirus
Herpes virus
Epstein-Barr virus
Treponema pallidum
Borrelia burgdorferi