IgE responses in human gnathostomiasis.

Specific IgE antibody levels in the serum of patients with proven gnathostomiasis and in those with intermittent cutaneous migratory swellings were determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using aqueous extracts of Gnathostoma spinigerum infective larvae as antigen. There was not only an elevation of specific IgE antibody levels but also a marked increase of total IgE in the serum of these patients. The mean levels of specific IgE antibody in both groups of patients were significantly higher than that of healthy controls (P less than 0.01). Only one of the 50 serum specimens tested had an ELISA reading that fell within the mean + 2 standard deviations of the control group, suggesting that the method would be useful with a high degree of reliability in confirming a clinical diagnosis of gnathostomiasis in humans. Compared with healthy controls, there was almost a 10-fold rise (P less than 0.01) in the total IgE in the serum of these patients, indicating that G. spinigerum infection potentiates IgE production similarly to many other nematode parasites.