Immunodiagnosis in clinical practice.

ABSTRACT

Although the definitive diagnosis of diseases caused by worms and protozoa depends upon the demonstration of adult parasite or its ovum in excreta, blood and tissue biopsies of the patient, immunological methods can be of help in the identification of associated immunological syndromes, pathogeneses of these infections in man and as a guide to therapy. However, the non-availability of pure antigens is a limiting factor in effective application of these tests. The present paper describes the immunological syndromes associated with these diseases as well as some of the in-use immunodiagnostic tests.