Sm. Shamsuzzaman et al., Evaluation of indirect fluorescent antibody test and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for diagnosis of hepatic amebiasis in Bangladesh, J PARASITOL, 86(3), 2000, pp. 611-615
Serum samples of 31 amebic liver abscess (ALA) patients, 8 amebic hepatitis
(AH) patients, and 60 controls were tested for anti-amebic IgG by enzyme-l
inked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and indirect fluorescent antibody tests (
IFAT). Sera of 29 (93.6%) ALA and 6 (75%) AH patients and 2 (3.3%) control
subjects were positive by IFAT. Anti-amebic antibody titer above the cutoff
point (= 0.168; (x) over bar + 2 SD of control sera) was observed in sera
of 27 (87%) ALA, 4 (50%) AH, and 1 (1.7%) control by ELISA. All the 8 pus s
amples were positive for anti-amebic antibodies by IFAT and ELISA. Sensitiv
ity of ELISA was 87% for ALA, with a positive predictive value of 0.96, and
50% for AH cases, with a positive predictive value of 0.80. The sensitivit
y of IFAT was 93.6% for ALA, with a positive predictive value of 0.94, and
75% for AH, with a positive predictive value of 0.75. When pus samples were
tested, the sensitivity was 100% for both tests. The specificity was 98.3%
for ELISA and 96.7% for IFAT. Although not significant, IFAT was found mor
e sensitive than ELISA (P > 0.05).