ABSTRACT
Patients infected with Campylobacter jejuni acquire serum antibodies and these have been investigated by a variety of techniques including agglutination, complement fixation, bactericidal assay, indirect immunofluorescence, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Because the nature and variation of the antigens present on the organism are still not well understood, these techniques have undefined degrees of specificity and the specificity may also vary with the way the antigen is prepared for a particular technique. Tube agglutination tests with formolized suspensions are suitable for detecting antibody in convalescent sera but the reaction is specific and the homologous organism is preferable. The different techniques described detect different antibodies in the patient and the responses disappear at different rates. When there was the opportunity to examine serum from those at risk of infection and who did or did not develop gastrointestinal symptoms, serological tests enabled further observations of interest to be made.
