Retrospective Determination of the Prevelense of Anti-Echinococcus granulosus Antibodies in Cystic Echinococcosis Pre-diagnosed Patients at Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine

Objective: Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a parasitic disease that has been known for years in helminth diseases and it is important as human and animal health problem in many parts of the world and in our country due to economic losses. In this study, it was aimed to retrospectively evaluate the distribution of anti-E. granulosus-IgG antibodies in patients with pre-diagnosis of CE that referred to parasitology laboratory between January 2013-December 2018. Methods: Commercial kit was used for indirect hemaglutination (IHA), indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and Western blot (WB) methods using sera from patient samples was applied according to the kit proposal. In addition, patient materials for CAM, CSF and blood for which polymerase chain reaction (PCR)/QPCR tests were requested were examined. Results: Sera of the patients who were tested with at least one of the IHA, IFAT and WB methods or a combination of these methods, and 443 cases out of 2.283 cases were found to be E. granulosus seropositive. It was determined that 369 (62.03%) of 443 positive patients were female and 330 (37.97%) were male patients. Among these patients, 87 patients whose IFAT and/or IHA tests were negative were found to have positive results with the WB method. IFAT or IHA test results of 13 patients with negative WB tests were found to be positive. Four patients were identified with both tests positive but WB test results negative. In addition, 36 of 72 patients who underwent PCR/QPCR tests were found to be positive. Conclusion: As a result of a six-year retrospective screening, 22% of the cases were found to be positive, and it was concluded that the prevalence of CE is high and the use of a single test may be insufficient in the diagnosis of CE, therefore, test combinations will increase the sensitivity and reliability in reaching the correct diagnosis.

[Retrospective evaluation of serologic and molecular test results of toxoplasmosis suspected patients]. / Toxoplasmosis süpheli hastalara ait serolojik ve moleküler test sonuçlarinin retrospektif dlarak degerlendirilmesi.

Toxoplasma gondii is a compulsory intracellular protozoan parasite with a wide range of host in warm-blooded vertebrates and has importance in terms of health and economy. Toxoplasmosis is very common because it can infect people with a variety of ways; ingestion of contaminated water and nutrients; raw or undercooked meats containing tissue cysts, blood transfusions, organ transplantantation and transplacental transfer. The aim of this study was to evaluate serologic and molecular test results of toxoplasmosis pre-diagnosed patients. Anti-T.gondii-IgG, anti-T.gondii-IgM ELISA, anti-T.gondii-IgM IFAT and anti-T.gondii-IgG avidity serological tests and PCR tests were applied by using blood, cerebrospinal fluid, amniotic fluid, pericardial fluid and abscess samples from patients who have admitted to Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine Department of Parasitology routine serology and molecular diagnosis laboratories with a pre-diagnosis of toxoplasmosis. Among 6547 patients 3.3% (n= 220) were only IgM positive, 9.2% were both IgG and IgM positive (n= 598). Among male patients, the positivity rates were lower and only IgM seropositive patients were 0.6% (n= 45) while the frequency of both IgG and IgM positive patients was 0.8% (n= 47). The number of both IgG and IgM seropositive cases among new borns, constituting 6.4% (n= 425) of the total number of patients, was 20 (0.3%) and the number of IgM seropositive samples was 25 (0.4%). Only 290 patients positive for IgM antibodies were studied for IFAT and 22 of these patients were positive for anti-T.gondii-IFAT IgM. Anti-T.gondii IgG avidity test was performed in all IgG positive patients regardless of their IgM seropositivity; low avidity was found in 0.7% (n= 18) of IgM-negative patients' sera and equivocal avidity was detected in 6.5% (n= 179). Low avidity was detected in 2.6% of IgM positive patients. Nine of the patients evaluated as anti-T.gondii IgM negative and IgG positive were detected as positive by PCR and two of them were negative. One of these PCR-positive patient's amniotic fluid was sent after the serological test results and detected as positive. Twenty CSF samples were studied by PCR and 7 samples were positive. Also, 8 blood samples which were anti-T.gondii IgM negative and IgG positive were found to bepositive in 7 and negative in one sample with PCR results, subsequently. PCR tests with pericardial fluid and abscess materials were found to be negative. In the case of suspicious or risky situations such as false negatives or false positives resulting from cross-reaction that can occur in ELISA tests, unnecessary medication or interventional approaches can be avoided by applying molecular-based testing at laboratories with appropriate infrastructure. For this reason, we believe that the application of molecular tests in addition to serological tests in risky situations may give more reliable results.