DIAGNOSIS OF HUMAN HYDATIDOSIS - COMPARISON BETWEEN IMAGERY AND 6 SEROLOGIC TECHNIQUES

Echography and/or chest radiograph in association with six serologic ( immunologic) methods were tested for their ability to diagnose human h ydatidosis. The immunologic techniques used were latex agglutination, counter immunoelectrophoresis, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELIS A) with whole hydatid fluid and with antigen 5, a thermobabile lipopro tein that elicits the are 5 precipitin line in immunoelectrophoresis. In this report, the results of examinations of 273 patients are presen ted. Of these, 243 cases were surgically proven to have hydatidosis, w hereas 30 of the 273 that were strongly suspected of having hydatid cy sts by radiology were shown to have other pathologies. The ELISA was m ore sensitive than the other methods, with 204 of 243 sera shown to be positive. The remaining 39 sera that gave false-negative results were tested using two recently developed methods, enzyme-linked immunoelec trodiffusion assay (ELIEDA) and immunoblotting (electrophoretic migrat ion of hydatid fluid antigens under denaturing but nonreducing conditi ons, blotting, and immunoenzymatic assay). Immunoblotting, using our e xperimental conditions, had a greater sensitivity than the ELIEDA with this technique. Four of 37 sera showed one to three bands of 65, 12, and 8 kD. The sensitivity of the ELISA did not increase with either th e size or type of cyst. Comparison of radiology with serology confirme d a good correlation between the two methods. Nevertheless, serology i s more specific but less sensitive than imagery.