Studies on the most reactive purified antigen for immuno-diagnosis of hydatid disease

Fourty hydatidosis patients and 36 patients with various parasitic diseases taken from Ain Shams University Hospitals and 15 normal controls as well were subjected to clinical examination, stool and urine examination, serological examination using indirect hemagglutination (IHA), counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIEP) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests with crude and partially antigens for hydatidosis. Partial purification of crude hydatid fluid antigen abolished reactions in IHA test, reduced in ELISA or had no effect on cross reactions in the CIEP test. The crude antigen was more sensitive than the purified antigen in all tests applied. Using crude antigen, IHA (83%) was the most sensitive test followed by ELISA (68%) and then CIEP (60%) tests. In case of partially purified hydatid fluid antigen, CIEP was the most sensitive (58%) test with the purified peak I antigen followed by IHA test with peak III (48%) then ELISA with purified peak I (45%). In all serological tests applied, hepatic hydatidosis cases gave the highest reactions followed by cases of combined hepatic and pulmonary infections and then pulmonary cases alone.