Background: Direct wet mount examination of vaginal secretion, widely applied for the diagnosis of Trichomonas vaginalis infection in woman patients, is rapid and economical. However, the sensitivity of this technique is not so high. In this study enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was employed for the detection of serum anti-T. vaginalis IgG antibodies from vaginal trichomoniasis patients.

Methods: Eighty sera from trichomoniasis patients who visited a Dr. Yoon Kyong’s Obstetric & Gynecologic Clinic in Songnam and 30 non-infected healthy men were tested for detection of anti-T. vaginalis IgG antibody. Soluble lysate and excretory-secretory antigen prepared by mixing of six isolates of T. vaginalis, and lysate from one isolate (KT4) were used as antigen for ELISA.

Results: The sensitivity of ELISA using mixed lysate of six isolates was 95.0%, and the sensitivity of the lysate from KT4 and mixed excretory-secretory antigen from 6 isolates were 86.4% and 76.3%, respectively. Specificities of ELISA by the three antigens were 93.3%, 96.3% and 92.0%, respectively.

Conclusions: It is suggested that ELISA using mixed lysate of T. vaginalis six isolates could be useful tools for the diagnosis of trichomoniasis. (Korean J Clin Microbiol 2000;3(1):62-68)