Heterophile antibody test
From IDWiki
Interpretation
- Used in the diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis from EBV
- 50% sensitive in the first week of illness, but up to 80-95% sensitive by the third week, and 98-100% specific, overall
- Less sensitive (10-50%) in young children (<4 years; lowest in those less than 2 years), with much lower negative predictive power
- Peak 2 to 5 weeks after symptom onset then usually decline quickly, but can persist for up to 6 to 12 months
- False positives are rare but can happen with rheumatoid disease, SLE, leukemia, lymphoma, and other infections including malaria, HIV, CMV, rubella, viral hepatitis and tularemia, and after administration of anti-thymocyte globulin
