Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, November 2001, p. 1140-1144, Vol. 8, No. 6
1071-412X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.8.6.1140-1144.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Laboratory of Clinical Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Vale do Itajaí, Itajaí SC,1 and Laboratory of Clinical Immunology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of São Paulo,2 and Fleury Laboratory,3 São Paulo SP, Brazil
Received 2 April 2001/Returned for modification 27 July 2001/Accepted 20 August 2001
Neurocysticercosis (NC), caused by the presence of Taenia solium metacestodes in tissues, is a severe parasitic infection of the central nervous system with universal distribution. To determine the efficiency of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunoblot with antigens of T. crassiceps vesicular fluid (Tcra) compared to standard techniques (indirect immunofluorescence test [IFT] and complement fixation test [CFT]) using T. solium cysticerci (Tso) for the serodiagnosis of NC, we studied serum samples from 24 patients with NC, 30 supposedly healthy individuals, 76 blood bank donors, 45 individuals with other non-NC parasitoses, and 97 samples from individuals screened for cysticercosis serology (SC). The sensitivity observed was 100% for ELISA-Tso and ELISA-Tcra, 91.7% for the IFT, and 87.5% for the CFT. The specificity was 90% for ELISA-Tso, 96.7% for ELISA-Tcra, 50% for IFT, and 63.3% for CFT. The efficiency was highest for ELISA-Tcra, followed by ELISA-Tso, IFT, and CFT. Of the 23 samples from SC group, which were reactive to ELISA-Tso and/or ELISA-Tcra, only 3 were positive to immunblot-Tcra (specific peptides of 14- and 18-kDa) and to glycoprotein peptides purified from Tcra antigen (gp-Tcra), showing the low predictive value of ELISA for screening. None of the samples from the remaining groups showed specific reactivity in immunoblot-Tcra. These results demonstrate that ELISA-Tcra can be used as a screening method for the serodiagnosis of NC and support the need for specific tests for confirmation of the results. The immunoblot can be used as a confirmatory test both with Tcra and gp-Tcra, with the latter having an advantage in terms of visualization of the results.
Universidade de São Paulo,
Av. Lineu Prestes, 580, Bloco 17, Laboratório de Imunologia
Clínica, CEP 05508-900, São Paulo SP, Brazil. Phone:
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ajvaz{at}netpoint.com.br.
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