Evaluation of the Chagas Western Blot IgG assay for the diagnosis of Chagas disease

BROSSAS, JY; BALLERING, G; BISIO, M; GUIHENNEUC, J; GULIN, JEN; JAURÉGUIBERRY, S; LESCURE, SX; FEKKAR, A; MAZIER, D; ALTCHEH, J; PARIS, L

Pathogens

MDPI

Año: 2021

Chagas disease is a debilitating and often fatal pathology resulting from infection by theprotozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. In its recommendations, the World Health Organization statesthat the diagnosis of T. cruzi infection is usually based on the detection of antibodies against T. cruziantigens and performed with two methodologically different assays. An inconclusive result can beresolved with a third ?confirmatory? assay. The objective of this article is to evaluate the effectivenessof the Chagas Western Blot IgG assay (LDBio Diagnostics, Lyon, France) as a confirmatory serologictest. The Chagas Western Blot IgG assay was performed with native antigens derived from a T. cruzistrain of the TcVI genotype. Retrospective sera were provided by two parasitology laboratories(France and Argentina). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictivevalue of the Chagas blot were all 100% in our sera collection. The Chagas blot is an easy andqualitative method for the diagnosis of Chagas disease, with results in less than 2 h. This immunoblothas potential as a supplemental test for the confirmation of the presence of antibodies against T. cruziin serum specimens. Nonetheless, the very good initial results presented here will need to beconfirmed in larger studies.