Seroprevalence of Entamoeba histolytica from a tertiary care hospital, South India.

INTRODUCTION: Amebiasis is the third leading cause of death after malaria and schistosomiasis. Diagnosis is based on microscopy, culture, isoenzyme analysis, and serology-based techniques. In resource-limited nation such as India where polymerase chain reaction cannot be employed, serology is considered to be the reliable diagnostic tool. To find the seroprevalence of Entamoeba histolytica IgG antibody by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) among the liver abscess cases and healthy controls.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Commercially available RIDASCREEN Entamoeba IgG ELISA kit was used to evaluate the samples as per manufacturer's instruction.

RESULTS: A total of 322 samples were evaluated by ELISA. 94/157 (59.87%) were positive for amebic liver abscess cases, 2/13 (15.38%) were positive in suspected amebiasis group, 5/15 (33.3%) were positive in nonamoebic hepatic disorder group, 5/39 (12.8%) were positive in other parasitic disorders, and 2/98 (2.04%) were positive in presumed healthy controls. The sensitivity and specificity of the assay were found to be 56% and 92%, respectively.

CONCLUSION: In an endemic nation such as India and other developing countries, ELISA can be used as a routine surveillance test in a clinical setup to detect amoebiasis if the cases are judicially evaluated along with the other routine tests.