title: [Evaluation of commercial kits used for Chagas disease diagnosis in blood banks in Chile. II. Routine application].
abstract: Aiming to study the applicability and reproducibility of four commercial kits used for the serological detection of Chagas disease (Chagatest-Inst Invest Paraguay, Ortho Chagas, Abbott Chagas (ELISA tests) and Estabilgen Hemo Chagas (indirect hemagglutination test)), a comparative serological study was performed in 256 sera samples coming from a highly endemic area, 249 samples from a low endemic area, 180 reference sera and 2264 samples coming from three blood banks. Specificity of the kits was excellent and sensitivity ranged from 60 to 100%. The indirect hemagglutination test has the lower sensitivity. Some disagreements in the results were observed in the three blood banks, probably due to an unsatisfactory reactive management. We conclude that ELISA tests should be recommended for routine detection of Chagas disease and that for this purpose, a net of laboratories under the direction of a national reference center should exist. This center should assess new commercial products, train technicians and supervise the laboratories.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Parasitología, Facultad de Medicina, (Campus Occidente) Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lorca
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Child
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jerez
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Toledo
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mezzano
mesh_terms: D001771:Blood Banks; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D002677:Chile; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012698:Serologic Tests
chemical_list: D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic
vernacular_title: Evaluación de reactivos comerciales empleados en el diagnostico de la enfermedad de Chagas en bancos de sangre de Chile. II. Aplicación rutinaria.