text: limitations of serology? limitations of serology depends on what type of serology you are talking about but here is a few:  *   detects exposure but not when exposure occurred. difficult to distinguish between antibodies due to vaccination and due to disease.     * to get meaningful information -           o paired sets of sera (acute and convalescent samples) - takes time but useful for management decisions           o igm - shows recent exposure, for viruses with transient igm response           o antibodies in csf for cns infections - vaccines do not usually produce antibodies in csf