Evaluation of Nelson-Modified Method and ELISA in the Diagnosis of Cryptosporidium Parvum

Abstract

To evaluate the diagnostic sensitivity of two Cryptosporidium diagnostic tests, used by the laboratory of Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital.Randomly, 1016 samples of feces were collected from children coming to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital (from both sexes under the five ages and from different regions of Governorate) for the period from first January 2012 to the end of January 2013. The feces samples were diagnosed by using modified Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) staining and compare the results of diagnosis withthe test of ELISA that an immunological method.
The results of the study found that there was a significant difference (P <0.05) between the two diagnostic methodsin the detection of Cryptosporidiumparvum.The results also showed that the rates of Cryptosporidium parvum infection out of a total of 1016 samples of diarrhea was 11.6%, by using ELISA technique and 7.79% by using ZN stain.The study proved that commercial ELISA more sensitive than ZN as a diagnostic stool of Cryptosporidium parvum infection.