Diagnosis of amebic liver abscess by means of an anzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay

Abstract

Amebic liver abscess (ALA) is the most frequent extraintestinal complication of amibiasis; its clinical presentation is generally acute, and it is considered a medical emergency. Patients manifest general symptoms, accompanied by pain in the right hypochondrium that can irradiate to the shoulder; painful hepatomegalia is a suggestive but not diagnostic sign; it should be distinguished from pyogenic liver abscess and necrotic hepatoma; for the diagnostic approach to ALA imagenologic exams and laboratory tests are required, among the latter the immunologic ones. In this study we used the ELISA test for the determination of antiamebic antibodies in control ALA sera, as described by the National Institute of Health Bogotá, Colombia (7). Furthermore, 67 serum samples were evaluated from patients with clinic suspicion of ALA. Of these 70.2 were positive; there was significant difference in the positivity rate between patients from two Colombia cities, those from Bucaramanga having a higher positivity rate.