Evaluation of a rapid enzyme immunoassay for diagnosis of hepatic amoebiasis

Abstract

We compared the capability of rapid enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect antiamoebic antibodies during hepatic amoebiasis with those of indirect hemagglutination and latex agglutination. EIA is simple to perform and rapid (20 min) and does not require any special equipment (optical reading is sufficient). EIA of 143 sera (including 43 from patients with proven hepatic amoebic abscess, 33 from patients with other hepatic disorders and/or parasitic infections, and 67 from healthy individuals) yielded a specificity, a sensitivity, and positive and negative predictive values of 100, 93, 100, and 97.1, respectively. This test could thus be considered another valuable tool for the diagnosis of hepatic amoebiasis.