Evaluation of Different Immunological Techniques for Diagnosis of Schistosomiasis haematobium in Egypt

The detection of Soluble Egg Antigen (SEA) in serum and urine could be more valuable in diagnosis; hence early treatment would be applied before irreparable damage occurs. In this study, Schistosoma (S.) eggs were isolated from the intestine of infected hamsters and purified by Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The purified SEA was injected in rabbits to raise specific polyclonal antibodies (pAb) against S. haematobium. The purified pAb was further used as a primary capture to coat ELISA plates. The secondary capture of pAb was by conjugation with Horse-Raddish Peroxidase (HRP). According to parasitological examination, this study included 150 S. haematobium infected patients, 50 other parasites infected patients and 30 negative control samples. Latex Agglutination Technique (LAT) was performed for both serum and urine in comparison to sandwich and dot-ELISA on 150 infected individual. Comparison was evaluated between LAT, sandwich and Dot-ELISA in serum samples, it showed 92, 98 and 98.66% sensitivity and 92.50, 96.25 and 98.75% specificity, respectively, while in urine samples showed 88.66, 90.66 and 94.66% sensitivity and 91.25, 93.75 and 96.25% specificity, respectively. It was clear that, the sensitivity of LAT in urine was significantly higher than the parasitological examinations. From all data in this study and with consideration to sandwich and Dot-ELISA assays, LAT assay have an important value as an applicable, fast and accurate diagnostic technique for schistosomiasis in the field.