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  • Title: [Evaluation of the ELISA method for diagnosis of human cysticercosis in an endemic region].
    Author: Agudelo P, Botero D, Palacio LG.
    Journal: Biomedica; 2005 Dec; 25(4):488-95. PubMed ID: 16433175.
    Abstract:
    INTRODUCTION: Cysticercosis is a worldwide public health problem. Currently it is diagnosed by detection of specific antibodies or by imaging techniques. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate an alternative diagnostic tool, a simple antibody detection assay, called Dot ELISA, for immunological diagnosis of patients with neurocysticercosis as well as for endemic population screening. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The test was applied to cysticercosis patients, as well as to healthy controls and individuals with other parasitic infections. A total of 45 serum, 41 plasma and 23 cerebrospinal fluid samples were obtained from patients meeting clinical, surgical, imaging and laboratory criteria for cysticercosis. Samples were processed by enzyme-linked immune-electro-transfer blot assay and by Dot ELISA. Controls included 37 serum, 64 plasma and 17 cerebrospinal fluid samples from healthy individuals without epidemiological history for taeniosis-cysticercosis. Similarly, 43 plasma samples from patients with parasitic infections different from cysticercosis and 663 samples from population survey for cysticercosis were also evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 933 samples were analyzed. In samples from cysticercosis patients and healthy control individuals, the Dot ELISA test showed an overall sensitivity of 80.7% (CI 95% = 80.2%-81.2%) and a specificity of 92.4% (CI 95% = 91.9%-92.8%). The Dot ELISA performed in serum had a sensitivity of 91.1%, in plasma 85.4%, and in cerebrospinal fluid 52.2%. Similarly, the same test performed in serum, plasma and cerebrospinal fluid, had a specificity of 100%, 85.9% and 100% respectively. The Dot ELISA was applied as a screening test for the diagnosis of cysticercosis in an endemic population in which 1.8% (12/663) of individuals had T. solium antibodies detected by Enzyme-linked immune-electro-transfer blot assay and showed a sensitivity of 58.3% (CI 95% = 54.0-62.7) and a specificity of 100% (CI 95% = 99.9-100.0) with a positive predictive value of 100% and a negative predictive value of 99.2%. All 43 samples from patients with parasitic infections different from cysticercosis were negative for both tests. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated that Dot ELISA is a promising tool for the diagnosis of cysticercosis as a screening test, as well as for field epidemiological studies.
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