Analytical validation of anti-toxoplasma IgG immunoassays.

There are often discrepancies when using different methods to measure anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgG levels in patient samples. The diagnostic performance of a chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA) and an enzyme-linked fluorescent assay (ELFA) used as confirmatory tests for samples identified as positive or equivocal by an electrochemiluminescent immunoassay (ECLIA) were examined. Cut-off values were those stated by the manufacturer, and Western blot was used to confirm the results of all methods.

Slow clinical improvement after treatment initiation in Leishmania/HIV coinfected patients.

Introduction: In Brazil there is a large area of overlap of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and HIV infection, which favored a increased incidence of coinfection Leishmania/HIV.

Methods: This study evaluated 65 consecutive patients with VL and their clinical response to treatment in two health care settings in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Results: At baseline, the clinical picture was similar between both groups, although diarrhea and peripheral lymphadenomegaly were more frequent in HIV-infected subjects.

Combined diagnostic methods identify a remarkable proportion of asymptomatic Leishmania (Leishmania) chagasi carriers who present modulated cytokine profiles.

Peripheral blood samples of 138 co-habitants from 25 families with recently diagnosed cases of visceral leishmaniasis in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, were analyzed by indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT), rK39 and Leishmania chagasi Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), intradermal skin-test and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) over a 12-month period. The cumulative positivity was significantly higher by PCR (29.7%) than by IFAT, rK39 ELISA, L.

Prevalence of systemic hypertension in students aged 7 to 14 years in the municipality of Barbacena, in the State of Minas Gerais, in 1999.

Objective: To detect the prevalence of systemic hypertension in children and to establish the relation between blood pressure levels and sex, age, ethnicity, weight, and height.

Methods: The prevalence of systemic hypertension and its relation to sex, age, ethnicity, weight, and height were studied in 611 students aged 7 to 14 years out of 19.928 students classified according to age, ethnicity, and sex, who underwent anthropometric evaluation and blood pressure measurement.