A comparison of the direct agglutination test and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the sero-diagnosis of leishmaniasis in the Sudan

Abstract

The sensitivity and specificity of the direct agglutination test (DAT) and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were compared for the sero-diagnosis of visceral (VL) and cutaneous (CL) leishmaniasis in Sudanese patients. All the sera from parasitologically confirmed cases of VL were positive in both ELISA and DAT. Some minor discrepancies were apparent between the two tests in patients with clinical signs of VL, but in whom VL was not confirmed parasitologically. In parasitologically confirmed CL both tests performed equally badly, with the DAT detecting 67% of cases and ELISA 60%. For the sero-diagnosis of VL, ELISA and DAT performed equally well, but on grounds of simplicity and low cost the DAT was preferred.