Comparison between elisa and various stains techniques in laboratory diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis

Abstract EN

Cryptosporidium spp.

is an important parasitic protozoa causing diarrhea which is a severe life-threatening diarrhea especially in immunocompromised hosts.

We aimed to evaluate the usefulness of detection of Cryptosporidium spp.

copro-antigen from fecal specimens by using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test and comparing its sensitivity and specificity with some staining methods.

The results revealed that Modified Acid-Fast stain is considered better than Giemsa in detecting Cryptosporidium species oocysts in faecal smears as their sensitivity were 67.5% and 53.75% respectively.

On contrary, ELISA technique is considered the best method used for detection of cryptosporidial infection as its sensitivity is 90%.-