4.2 Article

Toxoplasma gondii infection: What is the real situation?

Journal

EXPERIMENTAL PARASITOLOGY
Volume 135, Issue 4, Pages 685-689

Publisher

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.exppara.2013.10.001

Keywords

Toxoplasma gondii; Seroprevalence; Sabin-Feldman dye test; ELISA test; Pregnant women and HIV-infected patients

Categories

Funding

  1. Graduate School, Prince of Songkla University
  2. scholarship for the Ph.D. Program Thai Doctoral degree under the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC)
  3. Faculty of Medicine Research Foundation [01/2553, 53-080-14-1-2]
  4. Prince of Songkla University Research Fund [SCI550126S]
  5. Prince of Songkla University, Thailand
  6. Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia [UM-MOHE UM.C/625/1/HIR/MOHE/MED/18]
  7. University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia [UMRG 374/11HTM, UMRG 488/12HTM]

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The prevalence of chronic Toxoplasma infections reported in the literature varies enormously. We hypothesize that one factor could be due to the different methods used in the evaluation of infections. Serological evidence of Toxoplasma infections in 450 pregnant women (PW) and 300 HIV-infected patients (HIV) were investigated by the Sabin-Feldman dye test and two other commercial ELISA kits (kit1 and kit2). And-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies obtained from the Sabin-Feldman dye test, ELISA kit1 and ELISA kit2 in the PW subjects were 14.7%, 29.6% and 38.7%, and in the HIV subjects were 13%, 34.7% and 36.3%, respectively. So there were significant differences in the seroprevalences when different diagnostic tests were used (P < 0.05). Regarding Sabin-Feldman dye test as the gold standard for anti-Toxoplasma antibodies detection, we found that the sensitivity and specificity of the ELISA kit1 and kit2 was in the range of their specification. However as the two ELISA kits used in our study identified a much higher prevalence of Toxoplasma infections which indicated that false positive cases were being reported. Based on results obtained, it is therefore highly recommended that research workers should be aware that the reports of serological studies in terms of high positive results should be treated with some skepticism until additional precise diagnostic tools are developed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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