Field evaluation of latex agglutination test for detecting urinary antigens in visceral leishmaniasis in Sudan.
A latex agglutination test to detect urinary antigens for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) was studied. In 204 patients with suspected VL, KAtex had a sensitivity of 95.2% with good agreement with microscopy smears but poor agreement with 4 different serology tests. It was also positive in 2 confirmed VL cases co-infected with HIV. In all K4tex-positive confirmed cases actively followed up after treatment, the test became negative 1 month after completion of treatment. While IC4tex had a specificity of 100% in healthy endemic and non-endemic controls, the direct agglutination test (DAT) was positive in 14% of the KAtex-negative healthy endemic controls. KAtex is a simple addition to the diagnostics of VL particularly at field level and as a complementary test for the diagnosis of VL in smear-negative cases with positive DAT results.
El-Safi
S H
SH
Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan.
Abdel-Haleem
A
A
Hammad
A
A
El-Basha
I
I
Omer
A
A
Kareem
H G
HG
Boelaert
M
M
Chance
M
M
Hommel
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000652:urine*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019353:Endemic Diseases / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting / Q000592:standards; D007223:Infant; D007841:Latex Fixation Tests / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000276:immunology*; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000652:urine*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010274:Parasitology / Q000592:standards; D011379:Prognosis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013397:Sudan / Q000453:epidemiology
D000953:Antigens, Protozoan