TY - JOUR ID - 17188 TI - Comparison of Serological Methods (ELISA, DAT and IFA) for Diagnosis of Visceral Leishmaniasis Utilizing an Endemic Strain JO - Iranian Journal of Immunology JA - IJI LA - en SN - 1735-1383 AU - Mikaeili, Fattaneh AU - Fakhar, Mahdi AU - Sarkari, Bahador AU - Motazedian, Mohammad H. AU - Hatam, Gholamreza AD - Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran AD - Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran Y1 - 2007 PY - 2007 VL - 4 IS - 2 SP - 116 EP - 121 KW - visceral leishmaniasis KW - ELISA KW - IFA KW - DAT DO - N2 - Background: The causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Iran is Leishmania infantum (L. infantum) (Mediterranean type) and its major reservoir host is the dog. Ob-jective: To compare the serological methods including direct agglutination test (DAT), indirect immunofluorescent-antibody test (IFA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent as-say (ELISA) for serodiagnosis of endemic strain of L. infantum. Methods: 61 blood samples from VL patients referred to Shiraz hospitals and 49 blood samples from con-trol group were collected. Native strain of the parasite isolated from a VL patient from the region was cultured and characterized. Antigens from this L. infantum parasite were used in ELISA and IFA system. Results: Anti-Leishmania antibody was detected in 43 (70.5%), 49 (80.3%) and 51(83.6%) cases using DAT, IFA and ELISA, respectively. Based on these results, sensitivity and specificity of DAT was found to be 70.5% and 100%, respectively. Sensitivities of IFA and ELISA in diagnosis of VL were 80.3% and 83.6% and their specificity was 90.5%. Conclusion: Results of this study showed that DAT and ELISA have the highest specificity and sensitivity in diagnosis of VL. DAT is a simple, cost-effective and field applicable test. Thus, it can be recommended for early and accurate diagnosis of VL, especially in regions where malaria, brucellosis and tu-berculosis are prevalent. UR - https://iji.sums.ac.ir/article_17188.html L1 - https://iji.sums.ac.ir/article_17188_7dc251465eee0b682f204f77c6dda546.pdf ER -