RESUMO
A newly developed monoclonal antibody to keratinized Grade I squamous cell carcinoma was used in a dot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA] to test urine samples of 118 patients with bladder carcinoma, 291 patients with gentourinary pathology other than bladder carcinoma in addition to 550 healthy controls. The over all sensitivity of the dot ELISA was 90% among 118 patients with bladder carcinoma, 82% of the transitional cell carcinoma, 96% of the squamous cell carcinoma, 70% of the undifferentiated tumors and 100% of the adenocarcinoma were positive with this assay. The specificity was 90% in our sample population. A Comparative study of diagnosis by cytology and dot ELISA was carried out in 57 patients with bladder carcinoma. Dot ELISA, was found to be superior as a screening tool for high risk groups [P value <0.001 using the chi square test]. Cytolog detected 21% of transitional cell carcinoma, 68% of squamous cell carcinoma, 50% of adenocarinoma and 86% of undifferentiated tumors. The dot ELISA assay should be useful for screening high risk groups since it does not require sophisticated equipment, is non- invasive, does not require highly trained staff and can be performed in less than 30 minutes