Open AccessSerodiagnosis of leprosy in patients' contacts by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
Author(s) -
Elba González-Abreu,
Nancy Mora,
Milagros Hernández Pérez,
M. E. S. Pereira,
Julio Cesar Almanza Peréz,
Amy Berrington de González
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
leprosy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 2162-8807
pISSN - 0305-7518
DOI - 10.5935/0305-7518.19900013
Subject(s) - leprosy , medicine , antigen , lepromatous leprosy , antibody , mycobacterium leprae , lesion , glycolipid , dermatology , immunology , pathology
Serum samples from 3336 contacts of leprosy patients were tested for antiphenolic glycolipid I antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with the albumin coupled synthetic disaccharide antigen. The overall positivity rate was 9.3%. No significant differences were seen between a group of household contacts of lepromatous patients and those of the other types of the disease. The proportion of ELISA positives was slightly higher in the relatives as compared to workplace contacts and neighbours but significantly different only between the two former (p less than 0.05). Among those contacts with absorbance values higher than 0.100, 5 new leprosy patients were diagnosed, 2 of them with positive skin smears. A sixth contact was detected with a very high absorbance value in whom no single skin lesion was found but whose lepromin reaction was 0 mm and the skin smear showed a bacteriological index of 3+.