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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, March 2002, p. 370-373, Vol. 9, No. 2
1071-412X/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.9.2.370-373.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Evaluation of Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Diagnosis of Post-Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis with Crude or Recombinant k39 Antigen

P. Salotra,1* G. Sreenivas,1 A. A. Nasim,1 B. V. Subba Raju,1 and V. Ramesh2

Institute of Pathology (ICMR),1 Department of Dermatology, Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi 110-029, India2

Received 16 July 2001/ Returned for modification 19 October 2001/ Accepted 20 November 2001

The diagnosis of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL), a dermatosis that provides the only known reservoir for the parasite Leishmania donovani in India, remains a problem. Timely recognition and treatment of PKDL would contribute significantly to the control of kala-azar. We evaluated here the potential of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) as a diagnostic tool for PKDL. Antigen prepared from promastigotes and axenic amastigotes with parasite isolates that were derived from skin lesions of a PKDL patient gave sensitivities of 86.36 and 92%, respectively, in the 88 PKDL cases examined. The specificity of the ELISA test was examined by testing groups of patients with other skin disorders (leprosy and vitiligo) or coendemic infections (malaria and tuberculosis), as well as healthy controls from areas where this disease is endemic or is not endemic. A false-positive reaction was obtained in 14 of 144 (9.8%) of the controls with the promastigote antigen and in 14 of 145 (9.7%) of the controls with the amastigote antigen. Evaluation of the serodiagnostic potential of recombinant k39 by ELISA revealed a higher sensitivity (94.5%) and specificity (93.7%) compared to the other two antigens used. The data demonstrate that ELISA with crude or recombinant antigen k39 provides a relatively simple and less-invasive test for the reliable diagnosis of PKDL.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Molecular Biology Lab, Institute of Pathology (ICMR), Safdarjung Hospital Campus, New Delhi 110029, India. Phone: 91-11-6166124. Fax: 91-11-6198401. E-mail: salotra{at}vsnl.com.

Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, March 2002, p. 370-373, Vol. 9, No. 2
1071-412X/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.9.2.370-373.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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