%0 Journal Article
%T Evaluation of conventional serological tests for the diagnosis of American cutaneous leishmaniasis
%A A£¿ez
%A N¨¦stor
%A Rojas
%A Agustina
%A Crisante
%A Gladys
%J Bolet¨ªn de Malariolog¨ªa y Salud Ambiental
%D 2007
%I Scientific Electronic Library Online
%X three serological tests (elisa, ifat, dat) were evaluated using sera from selected individuals with different american cutaneous leishmaniasis (acl) clinical conditions. reactivity in at least 2 of the 3 named tests was established as a criterion for declaring a patient as sero-positive. prior to serological testing, people were diagnosed by clinical (presence of lesion = pl or scar=sc), parasitological (presence of parasites =pp), immunological (lst) and molecular (pcr) methods. for a statistical comparison of the evaluated tests 4 groups of people were made up: 1) patients with active leishmanial lesion (n=44; pl, pp, +lst, +pcr); 2) patients who had recovered from leishmanial infection (n=43; sc, +lst, +pcr); 3) asymptomatic individuals from endemic areas showing evidence of having contacted leishmania-parasites (n=40; +lst, +pcr) and 4) leishmania-negative people from the above localities where leishmaniasis is endemic and living under the same risk conditions, considered as healthy controls (n=104; -lst, -pcr). considering the above-established criteria for sero-positives, the analysis of the results obtained with the 3 tests employed revealed very low sensitivity values. seropositive figures of 50% were recorded for the first group, 9% for the second group, and 12.5% for the third group. statistical analysis also revealed a low positive predictive value (ppv=0.73), a low negative predictive value (npv=0.49), and a low kappa coefficient value (k=0.114). the present results raise questions about the use of the 3 conventional serological tests compared here to detect acl at any clinical condition.
%K american cutaneous leishmaniasis
%K diagnosis
%K serology.
%U http://www.scielo.org.ve/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1690-46482007000100004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en