Legionella pneumophila is a gram negative Bacillus, causative agent of Legionnaires’ desease. The clinical symptoms may vary from sub-clinical forms to fatal pneumonia, characterised by a mortality rate of 20% with regards to community infections and of 40% for nosocomial infections.

The Legionellaceae family is nowadays composed by over 50 Legionella species divided into 70 serogroups, of which the most relevant is serogroup 1, being it responsible for most Legionella infection cases.

The Legionella pneumophila sg. 1-6 IFA kit allows rapid serological confirmation of samples upon detection of specific antigen in urine. The rapidity of diagnosis confirmation may significantly contribute to reducing mortality. Furthermore, the additional indication of the actual infection stage (acute or convalescent) is obtained by means of using the kit under the directions of the Titration Protocol.

TECHNIQUE (SCREENING PROTOCOL)

• Prepare 1:128 and 1:256 diluitions of each patient’s serum.
• Add a drop of each control and sample serum in different slide’s wells.
• Incubate slides at 37°C in a moist chamber for 30 minutes.
• Extract the slides from moist chamber and pour them in PBS for 10 minutes.
• Add to each well a drop of FITC conjugated antibody.
• Repeat steps 3 and 4.
• Add immediately to the slides 2-3 drops of Mounting Medium and place cover glass.
• Examine the slides with a fluorescence microscope (with at least 40X objective).

For Titration use the same procedure above but using serial diluitions of the serum (from1:64 to 1:512 dilution ratio).