Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of antibody to cysticerci of Taenia solium.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of antibody to cysticerci of Taenia solium has been developed that employs a pork muscle antigen control for the cysticercus test antigen, somewhat improving the serological distinction between infected and uninfected subjects. Serum antibody to cysticercus was detected in 79% of classical neurocysticercosis patients from Mexico, and in 61% of a group of cysticercosis patients with an unusually rapid invasion of the central nervous system in an endemic focus of disease in Irian Jaya. Antibody was absent in a group of healthy American laboratory personnel, and in residents of a non-endemic region of Papua New Guinea. Additional test on sera from patients with other parasitic diseases showed that cross-reactivity may occur in some patients with schistosomiasis, echinococcosis, and possibly angiostrongyliasis; however, these parasites are not known to cause human infection in Irian Jaya.