J Med Microbiol Track the topics, authors and articles important to you
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Abass, E. M.
Right arrow Articles by el Harith, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Abass, E. M.
Right arrow Articles by el Harith, A.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Abass, E. M.
Right arrow Articles by el Harith, A.
J Med Microbiol 55 (2006), 1193-1196; DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.46643-0
© 2006 Society for General Microbiology
ISSN 1473-5644

ß-Mercaptoethanol-modified ELISA for diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis

Elfadil M. Abass1, Durria Mansour1, Mohamed el Mutasim1, Muna Hussein2 and Abdallah el Harith3,{dagger}

1 Ahfad University for Women, PO Box 167, Omdurman, Sudan

2 Omdurman Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Omdurman, Sudan

3 Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Mission to Ahfad University for Women, Omdurman, Sudan

Correspondence
Abdallah el Harith
harith17{at}Yahoo.com

Received 25 March 2006
Accepted 18 May 2006

Following antigen preparation procedures similar to those of the direct agglutination test (DAT), an IgG ELISA employing intact ß-mercaptoethanol (ß-ME)-treated Leishmania donovani promastigotes was developed. The performance of the ß-ME ELISA thus developed was assessed in patients with confirmed visceral leishmaniasis (VL), revealing slightly lower sensitivity (39/40=97.5 %) than that of the DAT (40/40=100 %). When challenged with sera of individuals with non-VL conditions, including leukaemia and African trypanosomiasis, the specificity of the ß-ME ELISA was 100 % (158/158), compared to 98.8 % (156/158) for DAT. In an endemic population (n=145) manifesting a clinical suspicion of VL, results obtained with the ß-ME ELISA were highly concordant with those of DAT, both in the seropositive (65/68=95.6 %) and seronegative (77/80=96.3 %) groups. Furthermore, the incorporated intact antigen demonstrated higher sensitivity in ELISA (16/18=88.9 %) than the water-soluble equivalent (13/18=72.2 %). The stability of the formaldehyde-fixed antigen (2 months at 4 °C) in ß-ME ELISA, as well as the option for direct testing of whole-blood samples and visual reading of results (within 2 h, compared to 18 h for DAT), advocate the simultaneous application of the technique with DAT for confirmation of VL in laboratories with limited facilities.

Abbreviations: DAT, direct agglutination test; ß-ME, ß-mercaptoethanol; VL, visceral leishmaniasis.

{dagger}Present address: Wijngaard 155, 8212 CJ Lelystad, the Netherlands.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 CVIHome page
D. Mansour, E. M. Abass, M. el Mutasim, A. Mahamoud, and A. el Harith
Use of a Newly Developed -Mercaptoethanol Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay To Diagnose Visceral Leishmaniasis in Patients in Eastern Sudan
Clin. Vaccine Immunol., December 1, 2007; 14(12): 1592 - 1595.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
INT J SYST EVOL MICROBIOL J MED MICROBIOL MICROBIOLOGY J GEN VIROL ALL SGM JOURNALS
Copyright © 2006 Society for General Microbiology.