Dot-ELISA in diagnosis of schistosomiasis

One microliter of S. mansoni egg antigen was dotted directly on the nitrocellulose paper sheet acting as the adsorbent surface (9 dots/paper). The sera of 25 Egyptian patients and 15 healthy persons (2 microliters of each) were dotted over the antigen dots, then 2 ml of each of the blocking, washing, HRP-conjugated IgG and DAB adding procedures, were added over the nitrocellulose paper in the petri-dish at room temperature. An intact brown circle (by naked-eye) indicates a positive in Dot-ELISA. There is an insignificant dot colour intensities in different clinical stages of S. mansoni infected Egyptians whereas, a direct relation was obtained between egg count and the colour intensity of the dots. The test had 100% sensitivity and 86% specificity thus it appears to be useful for both laboratory and field studies.