Description

INTENDED USE
The Calbiotech Mumps IgM ELISA Kit is intended for the detection of IgM antibody to Mumps in human serum or plasma.

SUMMARY AND EXPLANATION 
Infection with Mumps virus causes fever, headache, and swelling and tenderness of the salivary glands. Most adults born before 1957 have been infected naturally and are probably immune. Mumps can occur in unimmunized children, or adolescents and young adults who graduated from school prior to the law requiring mumps immunization. About 1/3 of people have no symptoms. The first symptoms usually appear 16 to 18 days after exposure. It begins with fever and pain upon opening the mouth or eating. Possible complications include meningitis (swelling of the covering of the brain and spinal cord), encephalitis (swelling of the brain), deafness, and in adult males, swelling of the testicles. The virus may cause a miscarriage if a woman becomes infected during the first three months of pregnancy. Mumps IgM antibodies by ELISA are present in serum of 72% of patients by day 2 of clinical illness and in essentially all patients after day 5. A significant increase in titer of mumps IgG by ELISA is found in over 90% of paired acute and convalescent mumps sera in which mumps IgM antibodies can also be found. Increases in mumps antibody titers in paired acute and convalescent sera are valuable for confirmation of acute infection even in the presence of specific IgM antibodies because 50% of patients still have elevated levels of reactive IgM 5 or more months after clinical mumps. In mumps meningitis, the Mumps IgG Antibody Index is increased in about 83% of patients and the Mumps IgM Antibody Index is increased in about 67% of those with detectable IgM in the CSF.


PRINCIPLE OF THE TEST
Diluted patient serum (serum diluent contains sorbent to remove Rheumatoid Factor and human IgG interference) is added to wells coated with purified antigen. IgM specific antibody, if present, binds to the antigen. All unbound materials are washed away and the enzyme conjugate is added to bind to the antibody-antigen complex, if present. Excess enzyme conjugate is washed off and substrate is added. The plate is incubated to allow the hydrolysis of the substrate by the enzyme. The intensity of the color generated is proportional to the amount of IgM specific antibody in the sample