Evaluation of a malaria antibody ELISA and its value in reducing potential wastage of red cell donations from blood donors exposed to malaria, with a note on a case of transfusion-transmitted malaria.

Background And Objectives: Blood donations are often wasted for lack of a satisfactory procedure to evaluate donors potentially exposed to malaria.

Materials And Methods: We evaluated a commercial ELISA for the detection of antibodies to malaria and compared it with an immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT).

Results: When 5,311 sera from routine non-exposed donors were tested, 24 (0.

Diagnosis of human toxocariasis by antigen capture enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.

Aims: To evaluate an antigen capture enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) which detects a carbohydrate epitope on the excretory-secretory (ES) antigens of Toxocara canis in clinical practice.

Methods: Serum specimens from healthy adults, patients with acute visceral larva migrans, ocular and inactive toxocariasis, and with other helminth infections were examined by two site antigen capture ELISA.

Results: Over half of the patients (19/28) with acute toxocariasis had a positive result in contrast to a small proportion of those with inactive disease (1/10) or ocular infection (2/7).

Progress toward a simplified polymerase chain reaction and its application to diagnosis of tuberculosis.

The complexity, expense, and susceptibility to contamination of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are all issues which need to be overcome if PCR is to be used outside of research laboratories. We addressed these problems with respect to the diagnosis of tuberculosis. First, we simplified the procedure for extracting Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA from sputum samples.