[Reliability of the indirect immunofluorescence test in the diagnosis of African human trypanosomiasis (author's transl)].

The reliability of an immunodiagnosis depends on its efficiency, i.e. the possibility of sorting out infected people from uninfected thanks to a good sensibility and a good specificity, and to its reproductibility. The authors have studied the reliability of the Indirect Immunofluorescence Antibody Test (IFAT) for trypanosomiasis diagnosis on 90 sera (30 sera from patients with proven trypanosomiasis and 60 sera from patients free of trypanosome infection). Reproductibility is considered as good when the reading has been done by the same reader. Sensibility approaches 100 p. 100 and specificity varies according to readers: the reader taking the "brillance" into account obtains a specificity of more than 85 p. 100 and the reader reading the immunofluorescence extinction obtains a specificity between 65 p. 100 and 77 p. 100. The IFAT may be taken as a reference to evaluate new immunodiagnosis.