Evaluación de un método inmunohistoquímico para el diagnóstico de la fiebre amarilla

Abstract

Diagnostic confirmation of fatal Yellow Fever (YF) is essential for epidemiological surveillance in YF endemic regions. An immnunohistochemical method for Yellow Fever antigen detection in sections from formalin-fixed and paraffinembedded liver tissues was evaluated. Sensitivity of procedure was 98.30%, it was determined in 59 cases with YF clinico-pathological and epidemiological criteria, that ocurred in Colombia from 1934 until1992 including typical, atypical and late YF cases: 58 cases were positive while 1 case with severe autolytic changes was negative. On the other hand, none of 10 cases with histopathological diagnosis different from YF, including 4 cases with fulminant hepatitis originated by hepatitis B and delta virus coinfection, showed immnoreactivity (specificity was 100%). The results suggest that this immunohistochemical method could be a useful tool for the accurate diagnosis of YF difficult cases in reference laboratories.