Detection of Specific Antibodies for Amoebapore in Serum of Patients with Amoebic Liver Abscess - Abstract
The presence of anti-amoebapore antibodies was detected through an enzymatic immunoassay linked to an enzyme (ELISA) and immune electro transference (Western Blot) in patients with a clinical diagnosis of amoebic liver abscess (ALA).
Twenty-five samples of serum of patients from General Hospital of Mexico with a previous clinical diagnosis of ALA were assessed. In addition to this, the samples obtained from other 22 subjects were evaluated to form the 4 control groups that are described as follows: 9 patients with pyogenic liver abscess (PLA), 3 with leishmaniasis, 3 with trypanosomiasis, and, 7 healthy ones. Out of the patients previously diagnosed with ALA, 60% tested positive in the actual ELISA analysis; the same outcome was obtained in the Western Blot (WB) assay. The statistical analysis with the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC) showed values of 100% of sensitivity and 100% of specificity in the ELISA technique using pure amoebapore. Therefore, the ELISA with the amoebapore protein seems to be a good choice for the serum diagnosis of ALA.