Raissa Nadège Caboré, Denis Piérard and Kris Huygen
Serological surveillance is an easy manner to estimate the real risk of infectious diseases among populations. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays commonly used for antibody screening are time consuming when testing multiple analytes on large sample numbers. As multiplex immunoassays for detection of antibodies against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis are not commercially available; we and other groups have validated multiplex bead-based immunoassays for simultaneously detection of antibodies against these three infectious diseases. However it is difficult to compare the assays described in the different studies, as various investigators used different materials, reagents and reference sera and reports varied considerably in the amount of methodological details provided. In our recent study, we developed a Luminex xMAP based assay using for the first time magnetic beads and commercially available purified antigens and commercial ELISA kits for assay comparison, parameters which are important for future standardisation by different laboratories.