Evaluation of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the serodiagnosis of amoebic liver abscess

An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was evaluated for the detection of anti-amoebic IGG and IGM antibodies to assess its value in distinguishing past from current infection in invasive amoebiasis, particularly in amoebic liver abscess (ALA) patients. Using sera from 295 individuals, the ELISA was also compared with the amoebic gel diffusion (AGD) test. In 100 patients the IgG-ELISA at a single test dilution of 1/6,400 had a sensitivity of 99% for clinically diagnosed ALA. In these same patients the IGM-ELISA at a single dilution of 1/400, had a sensitivity of 64% and a specificity of 97.9%.