Serological tests to American cutaneous leishmaniasis applied on screened samples for Chagas disease in areas of the State of São Paulo, Brazil / Sorologia de leishmaniose tegumentar americana em areas de avaliação de infecção chagasica no estado de São Paulo, Brasil

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2008

RESUMO

Leishmaniases and Chagas disease are endemic in extensive areas of the American Continent. These parasitic diseases can occur together in South America, particularly in southwestern regions of Brazil, which poses a serious epidemiological problem due to the observed serological cross-reactivity between Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma cruzi, even at low titers. As false prevalence estimates of these agents are critically misleading, we designed an experiment aiming at analyzing the effect of a diluent intended to reduce the chances of false positive tests resulting from serological cross-reactivity between these kinetoplastids and other parasites. As a part of the activities of the Program for the Control of Chagas disease, we selected 585 blood samples collected, during the period from 1996 to 2003, from residents in four regions situated between the seacoast and the plateau of the State of São Paulo. The serological tests used (IFAT and ELISA) produced a total of eleven positive reactions. Lower false positive titers resulted from the use of high avidity ELISA plus a chaotropic diluent. The only serological result in which titers corresponding to both infections were not significantly reduced was suggestive of mixed infection, on the basis of the fact that it was connected to a patient evidently exposed to both agents. This experiment suggests that the use of a chaotropic diluent can be a useful tool to reduce the proportion of such false parasitic mixed infection results as those investigated by us.

ASSUNTO(S)

leishmaniose leishmaniasis chagas s disease elisa doença de immunoglobulin g chagas imunoglobulina g

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