Comparative Evaluation Of Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (Rt-Pcr) With Direct Fluorescent Antibody Test For Diagnosis Of Rabies In Fresh And Decomposed Brain Samples

Abstract

A total of 85 one human and 84 animal brain samples(76 fresh and nine decomposed brain samples) were tested by three methods namely Seller’s Staining, direct Fluorescent Antibody Test (dFAT) and Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) to evaluate the role of RT-PCR in comparison with conventional methods. Out of 76 fresh brain samples, 42(55.26%) samples were found positive by Seller’s staining, 46 (60.52%) were found positive by both RT-PCR and dFAT which is a gold standard. Sensitivity, Specificity and Concordance of RTPCR with dFAT was 100% in fresh brain samples. Of the nine decomposed brain samples, eight (88.88%) samples were positive by RT-PCR whereas dFAT confirmed positivity in four (44.44%) samples and one sample was found negative by both RT-PCR and dFAT. Further Gene sequencing of 26 fresh and 8 decomposed RT-PCR positive brain samples was done for confirmation .As per this study RT-PCR appears to be a useful diagnostic tool for detection of rabies virus as this test is sensitive for both fresh as well as decomposed brain samples.