Bronchiolites du nourrisson à virus respiratoire syncytial: Intérêt et limites des techniques d'immunofluorescence pour le diagnostic rapide, direct et indirect

From October, 1980, to March, 1981, the direct fluorescent antibody technique from nasal aspirates and the serology by immunofluorescence (IF) were developed to evaluate their efficiency for the rapid diagnosis of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections. RSV was identified in 208 of the 365 specimens. In Caen, hospitalized infants with bronchiolitis had secretions mostly weakly positive (90/154) than strongly positive (64/154), in spite of specimens taken at an early stage of the disease, without any relation to the severity of bronchiolitis. Paired sera were rarely available for serology (11/154). Increasing IF antibodies are present in 7 cases, and absent with CF test. On 80 acute sera, IF antibodies were absent (21/80) or low (28/80). In the other cases (39/80), IgM activity was also detected two times out of three.