Immunological diagnosis of human cystic echinococcosis: Utility of discriminant analysis applied to the enzyme-linked immunoelectrotransfer blot

An enzyme-linked immunoelectrotransfer blot for the diagnosis of human hyda tid disease was performed, and the different antibody responses were analyz ed by a discriminant analysis. This multivariate technique gave us, first, a selection of the most important responses against Echinococcus granulosus infection and, second, a procedure for the classification of patients into two groups: patients with hydatid disease and patients without a history o f hydatid disease. This method was applied to 67 patients, 25 with active h ydatid cysts (24 hepatic and 1 pulmonary) and 42 without a history of hydat id disease and was compared with the results obtained by conventional serol ogy: indirect hemagglutination, latex particle agglutination, and basophil degranulation. An immunoelectrotransfer blot coupled to a discriminant anal ysis was more sensitive than conventional serological diagnosis and detecte d 100% of patients with an active hepatic hydatid cyst with a specificity o f 100%. This method, however, failed to detect an uncomplicated hyaline pul monary hydatid cyst.