ABSTRACT

Hydatidosis is an endemic illness in many regions of world. Several serodiagnostic techniques have been evaluated for the diagnosis of cystic hydatid disease caused by Echinococcus granulosus. The aim of this study was to assess the efficiency of the commercial florescent antibody test (IFAT), indirect hemaglutination test (IHAT) and in-house IFA tests. For this purpose sera from one hundred patients who had been given a diagnosis of hydatid cyst by surgery were used. In-house IFA was developed using the germinal membrane of Echinococcus granulosus and sera were studied by the three different methods. As a result, the specificity of commercial IFA, IHA and in-house IFA was found to be 100% and sensitivities of these tests were 87.7%, 74.6% and 83.3% respectively. In conclusion, in-house IFA test is a useful and cost effective but difficult test to prepare for the routine laboratory.