Utility of cysticercus fasciolaris antigen in Dot ELISA for the diagnosis of neurocysticercosis.

BACKGROUND Clinical diagnosis of neurocysticercosis (NC) is established by CT scan and MRI. However, absolute diagnosis is not possible in a fair number of cases, and serological assays are used as adjunct. Besides, CT scan and MR imaging are resource-intensive tests and not practical for screening in endemic areas. AIM To provide a low-cost, efficient, and reproducible assay for the detection of antibodies against cysticerci. Hence we have attempted to standardize and evaluate the diagnostic utility of the cysticercus fasciolaris antigen in a Dot ELISA assay for diagnosis of NC. SETTING AND DESIGN Tertiary hospital-based, case-control series. MATERIALS AND METHODS Confirmed cases of NC diagnosed by presence of ring lesions in CT scan or MR imaging with presence of scolex were taken as positive controls (n = 50). Negative controls (n = 50) included subjects with normal CT scan studies (n = 30) and diseased controls with ring lesions in CT scan confirmed to be neurotuberculosis (n = 20). Dot ELISA was standardized and validated with commercially available ELISA (UBI, USA) using sera from the study groups. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Chi-square test was used to compare the immunodiagnostic performance of the two tests. P value less than .05 (P < 0.05) was considered significant. RESULTS The Dot ELISA had a sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 74% with a positive predictive value of 77.19% and negative predictive value of 81.06%. Likelihood ratios for a positive and a negative test were 3.4 and 0.2. The sensitivity and specificity of commercial ELISA were 92% and 84% respectively. Difference between the performances of the two tests was not significant statistically. CONCLUSIONS Dot ELISA has sensitivity and specificity comparable to ELISA for the diagnosis of NC. The test is simpler, not requiring expertise and instrumentation. Further validation of the test as a screening tool is required.