Cutaneous leishmaniasis serodiagnosis by immunoperoxidase assay

Immunoperoxidase assay was used for the determination of serum-specific anti-leishmanial IgG antibodies in 65 patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), in 5 with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and in 84 controls. A significant difference was observed between CL and VL sera and the control sera when either Leishmania major, L. donovani or L. aethiopica intact promastigotes were used as antigens. CL patients showed similar activity against L. major and L. donovani antigen (titers 4-64 and less than 2-64 respectively), whereas VL patients showed a higher activity with the homologous antigen L. donovani (titers 128-2,048). A high and significant correlation was demonstrated between immunoperoxidase assay, immunofluorescent assay and radioimmunoassay. No cross-reactivity was found with sera from malaria patients.