Quantitative determination of anti-hydatid antibodies by ELISA without a colorimetric reading

A simple and sensitive immunoenzymatic technique for titration of anti-E. granulosus antibodies is described. The method employs the Diffusion-In-Gel-ELISA (DIG-ELISA) technique that needs no plate reader and thus could be widely used in endemic areas. Seventy five human sera, including patients with hydatid disease (26), other parasitic diseases (20), infectious diseases (9), non-infectious diseases (4) and healthy donors (16), were assayed to evaluate diagnostic specificity. The results obtained indicate that DIG-ELISA exhibits sensitivity and specificity similar to other serological techniques for hydatid diagnosis, and in addition improves simplicity.