title: Toxoplasma antibody prevalence in Nepalese pregnant women and women with bad obstetric history.
abstract: Sera from randomly selected 345 pregnant Nepalese women aged 16-36 years and 13 women with bad obstetric history (BOH) were tested for the presence of Toxoplasma antibodies using microlatex agglutination (MLA) and ELISA methods. The overall prevalence was 55.4% (191/345). Prevalence was slightly higher (59.0%) in older age-group (27-36 years) compared with younger age-group (16-26 years) (52.2%). No significant difference in antibody prevalence in women belonging to two different ethnic-groups (Tibeto-Burmans 57.8%, Indo-Aryans 52.7%) was observed (p>0.05). MLA antibody titer ranged from 1:16 to 1:2,048. Over three-fourth of the women showed either high (1:510 or over) or low (1:16 or 1:32) antibody titer. Three percent (6/191) of MLA antibody positive subjects had Toxoplasma IgM antibodies by IgM-ELISA. All six IgM antibody positive pregnant women had MLA antibody titer of over 1:510. Of the total 13 women with BOH, 5 (38.5%) had Toxoplasma antibodies of which 2 (40.0%) were positive for Toxoplasma-IgM antibodies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Zoology, Faculty of Medicine Kobe University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Rai
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sumi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rai
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rai
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Manandhar
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gurung
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uga
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsuoka
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Shrestha
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumura
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009390:Nepal / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D015597:Pregnancy Complications, Parasitic / Q000276:immunology; D017584:Reproductive History; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014123:Toxoplasmosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan