ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT-ASSAY WITH WHOLE TROPHOZOITES OF TOXOPLASMA-GONDII

Abstract

In a comparative study 151 human sera were tested for IgG and IgM antibodies against T. gondii in the fluorescent-antibody-test (FAT) as well as in the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using the same antigen (whole trophozoites of T. gondii). A positive correlation was found between the results obtained in FAT and ELISA. The detection of specific IgG antibodies revealed a correlation of 100 and 97.5% in positive and negative sera, respectively. Only 8 of 11 positive sera showed deviations of more than .+-. 1 step within the titer ranges. While detecting specific IgM antibodies a highly significant correlation (99.3%) between FAT and ELISA was obtained for negative sera. Five positive IgM sera showed titer end-points of 1:64 and 1 serum an end-point titer of 1:256 in FAT as well as in ELISA; a comparison was made because of the small amount of available positive IgM sera.