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Medical Definition of Spot test for infectious mononucleosis
1. A slide test widely used for the diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis, based on the principle that the heterophil antibodies that occur in the serum of patients with infectious mononucleosis are absorbed by beef red cells but not by guinea pig kidney cells; thus, when horse red cells (which provoke heterophil antibodies) are mixed with patient serum and agglutination occurs in the presence of beef red cells, the presumptive diagnosis is infectious mononucleosis. (05 Mar 2000)