[Investigation of anti-Echinococcus granulosus antibodies in patients with suspected cystic echinococcosis].

Objective: Cystic echninococcosis (CE) is an important helmintho-zoonotic disease causing health-threatening and economic losses for developing countries. In this study, anti-Echinococcus granulosus antibodies were evaluated in 1556 CE suspected patients (701 males, 855 females) who applied to the serology laboratory of the Parasitology Department of Erciyes University between June 1999 and July 2010.
Methods: Fifty-six (3.6%) patients were evaluated with the three different methods of Indirect Hemagglutination Test (IHA), Indirect Fluorescent Antibody Test (IFAT) and Western blot (WB). 378 (24.3%) were tested with both IHA and IFAT, 123 (7.9%) with both IHA and WB,and 999 (64.2%) were evaluated with one of these three methods.
Results: In 353 (22.7%) patients, anti-E. granulosus antibodies detected by one of above three methods were considered as positive.
Conclusion: Since some patients were assessed either as negative or positive with one of above test, we believe that it should be safer to use at least two tests together for diagnosis of CE.