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Rapid Microbial Antigen Tests

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Advanced Techniques in Diagnostic Microbiology

Abstract

Immunoassays for the detection of the antigens of microorganisms remain important tools for the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases. Antigen tests have long been used to detect infectious agents and are particularly useful for those agents that are difficult, slow, or hazardous to culture. While antigen tests are being superseded in many cases by simple and rapid molecular amplification methods, the combination of speed, economy, simplicity, and lack of expensive equipment allows antigen tests to retain a role in rapid testing, point-of-care testing, testing in low- to mid-resource areas, and global health testing. In this chapter, the principles of antigen detection techniques are reviewed, along with their current applications in diagnostic microbiology and clinical practice, including in global health testing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service, VA Connecticut, West Haven, CT, USA

    Sheldon Campbell

  2. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Sheldon Campbell & Marie L. Landry

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  1. Sheldon Campbell
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  2. Marie L. Landry
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Correspondence to Marie L. Landry .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Internal Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Yi-Wei Tang

  2. Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Charles W. Stratton

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Campbell, S., Landry, M.L. (2018). Rapid Microbial Antigen Tests. In: Tang, YW., Stratton, C. (eds) Advanced Techniques in Diagnostic Microbiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33900-9_5

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