1997 Volume 39 Issue 2 Pages 273-280
A test paper strip using anti-human hemoglobin monoclonal antibody for immunological detection of hemoglobin (immunological method) was used for detection of salivary occult blood, and its sensi-tivity was compared with that of a conventional test paper using the peroxidase method.
The immunological method responded to 0.1μg/ ml hemoglobin making it about 100-fold more sensi-tive than the peroxidase method. On the other hand, the peroxidase method detected myeloperoxidase at 3U/ml or above and lactoperoxidase at 100U/ml or above, whereas the immunological method showed no response to these enzymes which were not derived from red blood cells. A comparison between the immunological and peroxidase methods applied to cinically healthy or edentulous subjects (control group) and periodontally diseased subjects (test group) revealed a 77.6% correspondence ratio. When the immunological and peroxidase methods were tested in control subjects, 100% nega-tive and 30% positive reactions were obtained, respectively. These results indicate that a propor-tion of positive responses to the peroxidase method are probably false-positive due to peroxidase in saliva, and that the immunological test paper might detect human hemoglobin more specifically. Therefore, a test paper using the immunological method appears to be a useful approach for the detection of occult blood in saliva.
