Serodiagnosis of paragonimiasis by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunoelectrophoresis.

Antigens from 4 species of Paragonimus were used to develop ELISA for the diagnosis of paragonimiasis in 50 patients infected with P. westermani, 6 patients with P. miyazakii, 64 patients with other helminthic infections and 17 healthy blood donors. There was no significant difference between the ELISA values of the same sera tested against crude antigens prepared form P. westermani, P. miyazakii, P. heterotremus and P. siamensis. When pooled sera from patients with westermani and miyazakii paragonimiasis were absorbed with homologous and heterologous antigens, reduction in ELISA values was observed to be more pronounced with the homologous antigens. A similar result was obtained when a rabbit hyperimmune serum against P. siamensis was absorbed with the crude antigens from these 4 species of Paragonimus. The antigens from P. siamensis recognised by rabbit hyperimmune serum were analysed by immunoelectrophoresis. Precipitating bands were observed as early as 7 days after immunization with a maximum number of bands in the 6th and 7th weeks after immunization.