A brief update on the diagnosis of trichinellosis

The latest immunological and molecular methods for the diagnosis of swine and human trichinellosis are briefly reviewed. The following topics are discussed in more detail: isolation of specific antigens by continuous elution-isoelectric focusing methods, production of recombinant antigens, nature of immunodominant antigens, potential use of heat shock proteins (HSPs) as diagnostic antigens, roles of specific IgE and circulating antigens (CA). The immunodominant antigens were found to be highly heat resistant. The specificity and sensitivity of colorimetric sandwich ELISA, microfluorescence (ELFA), enhanced chemiluminescence (ECIA) and dissociated enhanced lanthanide fluoroimmunoassay (DELFIA) in detecting CA were compared. The last method is the most sensitive, detecting as little as 1 ng of antigens/ml of serum. CA was detected as early as 7 days postinfection of mice. The serum from a patient suspected to have acute trichinellosis in Hong Kong was also tested positive for CA.