Background: Serologic tests for specific antibody nowadays are widely employed for the diagnosis of parasitic diseases. Recently, an increasing numbers of kits have adopted enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of parasitic antibodies. In this study, we evaluated two ELISA reagents for the diagnosis of parasitic diseases.

Methods: A total of 553 serum and 156 CSF samples were assayed using an in-house micro-ELISA and Genedia^Ⓡ Ab ELISA (Green cross PBM, Korea) for Cysticercus, Paragonimus westermani, Clonorchis sinensis, and Sparganum. We reviewed the medical records of all patients. The results from Genedia^Ⓡ Ab ELISA kit were compared with those from the in- house micro-ELISA method.

Results: The overall concordance rate between the two ELISA tests was 95.5%. When compared with the clinical information, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the in-house micro-ELISA were 100%, 99.0∼99.6%, 82.4∼96.4%, and 100%, and the respective figures for Genedia^Ⓡ Ab ELISA kit were 92.9~100%, 88.0∼ 97.3%, 41.7∼50%, and 99.9~100% with kappa agreement of 0.53-0.63. Comparison of two ELISA methods showed a significant difference (P＜0.05). Retesting of 85 discordant samples showed that the concordance rate of the in-house ELISA was 97.7% and that of Genedia^Ⓡ Ab ELISA was 28.2%.

Conclusion: Genedia^Ⓡ Ab ELISA kit showed an intermediate level of kappa agreement compared with the in-house ELISA. Further studies are necessary to improve the concordance rate of the two methods, and a careful interpretation of these results is required for a precise diagnosis. (Korean J Clin Microbiol 2008;11:56-62)