EVALUATION OF MODIFIED AGGLUTINATION TEST AND ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY IN DETECTION OF Toxoplasma gondii ANTIBODY IN HUMAN SERA

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonosis of high prevalence around the world, leading to serious congenital alterations and in immune compromised individuals. Its diagnosis is based in the detection of serum antibodies. This work aimed to compare serum antibody to Toxoplasma gondii detection by ELISA for IgG antibodies, and the MAT with the results of IFAT. From 73 samples examined by IgG-IFAT, 53 (72.6%) were positive, IgG-ELISA 55 (75.4%) and MAT, 58 (79.4%).  No significative differences among results of tests are found. MAT shows high sensibility (100%) and lower specificity (75%), there were not false-negative results, but showed false-positives (25%). ELISA showed sensibility of 98.1% and specificity of 85,0%, false-negative rate of 1.9% and false-positive rate of 15.0%. MAT performance, when compared with IFAT, suggests the utilization of this method in diagnostic and epidemiological preliminary tests, besides ELISA has been used as a confirmatory test, for its specificity.