Can you test for rabies?

Rabies is a very common disease, but most people may not be able to detect it in the early stages after the onset of the disease, which leads to the continuous deterioration of the disease. The test for rabies is actually very simple. It only requires the testing of secretions such as blood and urine, combined with virus testing, to check whether the patient has rabies.

Inspection method Laboratory examination:

1. Routine blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid examinations show that the total white blood cell count ranges from (12 to 30)×109/L. The percentage of neutrophils is mostly above 80%, and the percentage of large monocytes may also increase. Routine urine examination often reveals mild proteinuria and occasional transparent casts. The pressure of cerebrospinal fluid is within the normal range or slightly increased, the protein content is slightly increased, and the cell count is slightly increased, but rarely exceeds 200×106/L, and the main cells are lymphocytes.

2. Immunological tests

(1) Serum neutralizing antibody or fluorescent antibody assay: It has diagnostic value for those who have not received vaccination, anti-rabies serum or immunoglobulin. The disadvantage is that it is difficult to detect before the 8th day of the disease. For patients who have been vaccinated, if the neutralizing antibody titer exceeds 1:5000, it is still valuable for diagnosing rabies, because those who have only been vaccinated have a lower antibody titer. Recently, ELISA has also been used for antibody detection.

(2) Rabies virus antigen detection: Use fluorescent antibodies to detect viral antigens in brain tissue smears, corneal prints, and frozen skin sections, and positive results can be obtained before the onset of the disease. The method is simple, can be completed within a few hours, and has a high consistency rate with the method of intracerebral inoculation of mice to examine Naessl bodies. Therefore, it is a test with great practical application value. In experienced laboratories, the reliability of immunofluorescence tests can reach over 95%. The recently adopted rapid rabies enzyme immunodiagnosis (RREID) can be used to detect rabies virus antigens in brain tissue. The results can be measured by naked eye observation or enzyme marker. A positive reaction will show orange-yellow color, while a negative reaction will be colorless. It is very quick and simple.

3. Virus isolation Although the virus can be isolated from the patient's brain tissue, spinal cord, salivary glands, lacrimal glands, muscles, lungs, kidneys, adrenal glands, pancreas and other organs and tissues, the chances are slim. It is even more difficult to isolate the virus from cerebrospinal fluid and saliva. The longer the patient survives, the more difficult it is to isolate the virus. Viruses can be isolated by tissue culture or animal inoculation, and after the virus is isolated, it can be identified by neutralization test.

4. Animal inoculation and examination of brain tissue are carried out after death. The animal inoculation is to make the brain tissue of the deceased into a 10% suspension and inoculate it into the mouse brain (2-3 week old suckling mice are more sensitive than adult mice). Positive mice will show tremors, piloerection, tail rigidity, paralysis and other phenomena within 6-8 days and die of exhaustion within 10-15 days. Naessl bodies can be found in brain tissue sections of deceased mice.