[Development of an immunoenzyme test for the diagnosis of human cysticercosis using a heterologous antigen].

Serological tests for the immunodiagnosis of human cysticercosis (an indirect ELISA test) and for the detection of Taenia solium antigen(s) in liquor samples (a sandwich ELISA test) have been developed using a heterologous antigen from the cyst fluid of T. hydatigena. Antibodies to T. solium were detected in 20 Italian subjects out of 113 with cerebral lesions of unknown etiology, and T. solium antigen(s) were detected in three of them, from 1991 to 1994. Case history of the positive patients showed that 17 of them probably acquired the infection in Italy. These results point out that cysticercosis is still present in Italy, and physicians have to consider this helminthic infection in a differential diagnosis.