UTILITY OF ANTIBODIES AGAINST A 22 KD MOLECULE OF DIROFILARIA-IMMITISIN THE DIAGNOSIS OF HUMAN PULMONARY DIROFILARIASIS

To assess the characteristics of an ELISA test for the diagnosis of hu man pulmonary dirofilariasis, we studied the sera of 24 subjects with other helmintoses and of 37 patients suffering from non-parasitic foca l lung diseases, comparing them with negative and positive sera. ELISA and Western blot with complete somatic antigen and ELISA with protein Di22 (specifically recognized in cases of lung dirofilariasis) were p erformed. With ELISA SA the false positive rate was 25% in cases with other parasitoses and 30% in cases with focal lung diseases. ELISA Di2 2 decreases this positivity levels. Only 2 cases with visceral larva m igrans (8.3%) and a case with lung nodules metastatic from renal adeno carcinoma (2.7%) were positive. ELISA Di22 therefore greatly decreases the false positive rate of ELISA SA.