[Comparative value of immunoelectrophoresis and ELISA in the serological diagnosis of human hypodermyiasis]

186 sera of patients with hypodermatosis were comparatively studied by immunoelectrophoresis and ELISA. After establishing limits of certainty (2 distinct precipitating arcs with IEP and an optical density greater than or equal to 0.8 with ELISA), the comparison of obtained results shows that there is a good concordance between the two methods, but that the second, by its higher sensitiveness, allows to reveal residual antibodies during a delay after disease recovery longer than with the first. Consequently, this higher sensitiveness allows, first, retrospective diagnosis, then the more frequent settling, when border-lined serological positivities are obtained with IEP, therefore without possible conclusions. On the other side, importance of crossed reactions between Hypoderma bovis and H. lineatum revealed with ELISA, does not allow, contrarily to what is done frequently by IEP, much more specific method, to know the species of Hypoderma causing the disease and, therefore, to bring more to the prognosis.