Evaluation of Fast-ELISA versus standard-ELISA to diagnose human fasciolosis.

BACKGROUND The present study was conducted to evaluate and compare a fast-ELISA (F-ELISA) method versus standard-ELISA (S-ELISA) to diagnose human fasciolosis. METHODS Serum samples were obtained from 35 individuals infected with fasciolosis, 27 infected with other parasitoses and 22 from healthy people. The samples were examined with S-ELISA (30-minute incubation periods) and F-ELISA (10-minute incubation periods) for total antibody response against fasciolosis. RESULTS The optimum conditions for S-ELISA and F-ELISA were respectively as follows: antigen 10 and 5 µg/mL, sera 1:500 dilution for both, peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-human IgG diluted 1:7000 and 1:10000. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 11.0. Cut-off vale for S-ELISA and F-ELISA was determined as 0.56 and 0.42, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity; positive, and negative predictive values were detected as 97.2%, 100%, 94.6%, and 95.6% for both tests. CONCLUSION Cut-off values, sensitivity, specificity, and other important parameters of the two evaluated tests determined that the F-ELISA method could be used with no detectable difference.