Evaluation of counter immuno-electrophoresis crossed electro-immunodiffusion and agar gel diffusion for immunodiagnosis of human hydatid disease.

Techniques of counter immuno-electrophoresis (CIEP), crossed electro-immunodiffusion (CEID) and agar gel diffusion (AGD) were used for diagnosis of hydatid disease. Sera were obtained from suspected patients before surgery and the antigens used were either human hydatid fluid (HHF) or sheep hydatid fluid (SHF). Out of the 29 suspected cases, 21 were confirmed by recovering the cysts from lung (ten), liver (nine), liver and spleen (two). The experimental results showed that precipitin line(s) with CIEP were obtained with the sera of all 21 confirmed patients using HHF and of 13 using SHF. With CEID, all 19 sera tested demonstrated precipitin patterns with HHF. In the AGD test precipitin lines were obtained in the sera of 15 patients using HHF and of six using SHF. None of the sera from 22 patients suffering from illnesses other than hydatidosis or of the sera from 34 apparently normal individuals gave positive results with CIEP when either HHF or SHF was used as the source of antigen. The CIEP test correlated well with CEID. It is, therefore, suggested that CIEP, which is a rapid and less sophisticated test, can be applied for the diagnosis of hydatid disease and in epidemiological surveys.