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Clin. Vaccine Immunol. doi:10.1128/CVI.00313-07
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

THE PERFORMANCE OF A NEWLY DEVELOPED -MERCAPTOETHANOL ELISA FOR DETECTION OF VISCERAL LEISHMANIASIS IN EASTERN SUDAN

Ahfad University for Women, P.O Box 167, Omdurman, Sudan; Laboratory Department, Aljouf College of Health Sciences for Boys, Sakaka, Aljouf, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: harith17{at}yahoo.com.

	Abstract

Corroboration of serology results is essential to the risk restriction of inappropriate anti-leishmanial prescription. A direct agglutination test (DAT) and a recently developed -Mercaptoethanol modified ELISA (-ME ELISA) based on the use of antigen prepared as described for DAT, were applied to 416 sera from two Sudanese populations with or without clinical presentation for visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Of 285 sera that tested at the lowest anti-leishmanial DAT titre level (1: 100- 1:1600), 270 (94.7%) scored comparable minimum -ME ELISA absorbance values ( 0.1-0.26). In 117 sera that demonstrated the highest DAT titre readings (1:12800- 1:25600), 86 (73.5%) scored maximum (0.81- 1.35) and 30 (25.6 %) medium (0.27-0.80) -ME ELISA absorbance values. VL diagnosis was established in 142 (44.1%) of the VL symptomatic group (322), based on positive microscopy for L.donovani in lymph node aspirate or positive DAT outcome (titre: 1:3200). Of the 125 sera from the symptomatic patients that displayed positive microscopy for VL, 111 (88.8%) reacted at comparable positive DAT and -ME ELISA readings. In all 17 sera from the symptomatic DAT positive patients that were missed by microscopy but responded favourably to the anti-leishmanial therapy, absorbance values ( 0.27) indicative of VL were demonstrated by -ME ELISA. Of 197 symptomatic patients that revealed negative microscopy for VL, 172 (87.3%) tested negative in -ME ELISA and 180 (91.4%) in DAT. Based on the high reliability demonstrated here for VL detection, -ME ELISA fulfils the requirement to confirm DAT results in patients manifesting suspicion for VL.