Diagnosis of American cutaneous leishmaniasis by enzyme immunoassay in patients from Northern Paraná State, Brazil

ABSTRACT

American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) is an endemic disease caused by Leishmania parasites. The ACL diagnosis is commonly accomplished by parasitological and immunological methods. The objective of this work was to evaluate the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for ACL laboratorial diagnosis. IgG antibodies against Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis promastigotes were researched. For the method standardization 240 sera were used: 72 from patients with positive parasitological diagnosis, 38 from normal individuals and 113 from individuals with other pathologies. The sensibility was 93 percent and the specificity was 70 percent. Regarding diagnosis, EIA showed 97 percent positivity in patients with ACL and 97 percent negativity in patients with other cutaneous lesions. The EIA presented a good performance when used for diagnosis, thus, it may become an important tool for it and for further ACL epidemiological studies in endemic areas.