Comparison of two slide agglutination serotyping methods and PCR-based capsule typing for the characterization of Haemophilus influenzae serotypes

Abstract

Ninety-three nasopharyngeal Haemophilus influenzae isolates were serotyped by two slide agglutination methods (SAST 1 and SAST 2) and the results compared with those obtained by capsule type-specific PCR. SAST 1 presented a low correlation with results obtained by PCR (75.2%) while SAST 2 showed a better agreement with the molecular technique results (93.5%). These findings suggest that SAST 2 could be an alternative method for adequate detection of H. influenzae type b.