CVI
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Zijlstra, E. E.
Right arrow Articles by Ghalib, H. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Zijlstra, E. E.
Right arrow Articles by Ghalib, H. W.

Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, September 1998, p. 717-720, Vol. 5, No. 5
1071-412X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

rK39 Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Diagnosis of Leishmania donovani Infection

E. E. Zijlstra,1 N. S. Daifalla,1,dagger P. A. Kager,2 E. A. G. Khalil,1 A. M. El-Hassan,1 S. G. Reed,3 and H. W. Ghalib1,*

Institute of Endemic Diseases, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan1; Department of Infectious Disease, Tropical Medicine and AIDS, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands2; and Corixa Corporation, Seattle, Washington3

Received 7 November 1997/Returned for modification 22 April 1998/Accepted 10 June 1998

The rK39 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was compared with the direct agglutination test (DAT) for Leishmania donovani infection in the Sudan. rK39 ELISA proved more sensitive than DAT in diagnosis of kala-azar (93 and 80%, respectively); both tests may remain positive up to 24 months after treatment. For patients with post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis and individuals with subclinical infection, rK39 ELISA performed as well as DAT but could detect infection 6 months earlier in ~40% of patients. Conversion in DAT and rK39 ELISA also occurred in leishmanin skin test (LST)-positive individuals, suggesting active parasite replication (rK39 is an amastigote antigen) in these presumably immune individuals. In contrast to DAT, rK39 ELISA also detected infection in randomly selected LST-positive individuals (in four of six) and endemicity (LST-negative) controls (in one of five). rK39 ELISA appears more sensitive than DAT and may prove an important tool in epidemiological studies.

* Corresponding author. Present address: College of Medicine, King Saud University, P.O. Box 641, Abha, Saudi Arabia. Phone: 966-7-2292564. Fax: 966-7-2240565.

dagger Present address: Infectious Disease Research Institute, Seattle, Wash.

Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, September 1998, p. 717-720, Vol. 5, No. 5
1071-412X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. Infect. Immun.
J. Clin. Microbiol. J. Virol. ALL ASM JOURNALS

Copyright © 1998 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.