A hemagglutination test is described for human malaria serodiagnosis with aldehyde-fixed Plasmodium berghei infected mouse erythrocytes. In patients with a P. falciparum or P. vivax patent parasitemia positive results were seen in 98.9% ofthe 88 cases tested. Titres rangedfrom 40 to 640. A 96.0% specificity wasfoundfor 476 non-malarialpatients. A close reproducibility was observed forthe test, even for dijferent reagent batches. The test was positive in 48.5% of 200 residents in malaria endemic areas, taken at random. These subjects showed 88.0% positivity of the IgG-immunofluorescence test. This lower positivity for the hemagglutination test could result from its reactivity with IgM antibodies. After 2-mercaptoethanol treatment, all serafrom patients with patent parasitemia were non-reactive. The hemagglutination test, with reference to the IgG-immunofluorescence test, showed a 0.989 co-positivity for patients with a patent parasitemia and a 0.969 co- negativity for non-malarialpatients. For residents in endemic areas a co-positivity of 0.528 and a co- negativity of0.833 were observed.
Malaria; Plasmodium berghei; Serology; Immunodiagnosis; Hemagglutination