Diagnosis of neurocysticercosis by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

Neurocysticercosis, a disease caused by larvae of T solium produces variable and non-specific symptoms. Computerised tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, immunological tests in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid are available options to diagnose the condition. Two hundred serum samples collected and stored frozen at -20 degrees C and were tested for cysticercosis by commercial Melotest cysticercosis kit. Diagnosis was confirmed by other investigations. After the confirmative diagnosis results of ELISA for cysticercosis were compared and the values of sensitivity, specificity, prevalence and precision were obtained along with positive and negative predictive values. Overall prevalence was found to be 10% in this study. Only 26.5% serologically positive cases had neurocysticercosis positively. The positive predictive value of the serological test was only 26.4% suggesting that the diagnosis of neurocysticercosis by ELISA is not reliable in an endemic area.