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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 2005, p. 4801-4806, Vol. 43, No. 9
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.43.9.4801-4806.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Use of Rapid Dipstick and Latex Agglutination Tests and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Serodiagnosis of Amebic Liver Abscess, Amebic Colitis, and Entamoeba histolytica Cyst Passage

Section of Parasitology, Department of Medical Microbiology,¹ Section of Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine and AIDS, Department of Internal Medicine, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,² The Harbor Hospital and Institute of Tropical Diseases, Rotterdam, The Netherlands,³ Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine, Central Laboratory of Clinical Biology, Antwerp, Belgium⁴

Received 6 April 2005/ Returned for modification 12 May 2005/ Accepted 21 June 2005

A homemade enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a dipstick assay (Dipstick) for the detection of anti-Entamoeba histolytica antibodies in serum were developed and evaluated together with a commercially available latex agglutination test (LAT; Laboratoires Fumouze) for their use in serodiagnosis of amebiasis. The sensitivity of these assays was evaluated with sera from 27 patients with radiologically proven, cellulose acetate precipitation (CAP) test-positive amebic liver abscess, 7 patients with parasitologically and PCR-proven amebic colitis, and 11 patients with parasitologically and PCR-proven E. histolytica cyst passage. The sensitivities of the ELISA, Dipstick, and LAT were all 93.3% (42/45). With a combination of Dipstick and LAT, all abscess and colitis patients had at least one positive result. The specificity was assessed with 238 sera from patients with various parasitic, bacterial, viral, and fungal infectious diseases, sera containing autoimmune antibodies, and sera from healthy blood donors. The specificities of the ELISA, Dipstick, and LAT were 97.1%, 98.1%, and 99.5%, respectively. Of 61 sera from patients with PCR-proven E. dispar infection, 60 (98.4%) were negative in both Dipstick and LAT and 59 (96.7%) were negative in ELISA. Our data suggest that all three assays are sensitive serological tests. The rapid LAT and Dipstick provide fast results and can easily be applied in routine laboratories in order to facilitate the diagnosis of amebiasis.

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