ABSTRACT
A hemagglutination (HA) test was standardized using formalin- and tannin-treated gander red blood cells sensitized with a total salt extract of C. cellulosae (HA-Cc) and an antigenic extract of Cysticercus longicollis (HA-Cl) vesicular fluid. A total of 61 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were assayed, 41 from patients with neurocysticercosis and 20 from a control group which were, respectively, reactive and non-reactive to ELISA using C. cellulosae. The CSF samples from the control group did not react and 35 (85.4%) and 34 (82.9%) CSF samples from patients were reactive to the HA-Cc and HA-Cl tests, respectively. The reagents ready for use were stable up to 6 months when stored at 4 degrees C in 50% glycerol. The present results confirm that the reagent using Cysticercus longicollis stabilized with glycerol can be used as an alternative in the immunological diagnosis of neurocysticercosis.
Subject(s)
Cysticercosis/diagnosis , Hemagglutination Tests/methods , Animals , Antigens, Helminth/immunology , Cysticercosis/cerebrospinal fluid , Cysticercosis/immunology , Female , Humans , Mice , Mice, Inbred BALB CABSTRACT
A new reagent was designed to the indirect hemagglutination test (IHATIAL), utilizing goose red blood cells as inert matrix and standardized for the field diagnosis of American trypanosomiasis. The objective was to substitute the lyophilized or frozen reagent of IHAT produced routinely using human erythrocytes in the Adolfo Lutz Institute (São Paulo/Brazil). The standardized reagent presented a long stability in liquid suspension, and was evaluated in 137 serum samples from patient with and without Chagas' disease, by IHATIAL. The diagnostic performance of this test was similar to the IHAT utilizing human erythrocytes and to that of a commercial IHAT kit. The sensitivity was 1.00, specificity 0.98, predictive value of positive 0.96 and of negative 1.00. Different batches of reagent successively produced proved to be reproducible in a quality control method. The new reagent is more economic than the former reagent, it can be produced easily and may be applicable to the seroepidemiologic studies.
