Screening for toxoplasmosis in pregnancy

Randomly collected sera from 386 pregnant women attending obstetric and gynecology clinics at Kind Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were examined for toxoplasma antibodies by five serological methods, i.e. latex agglutination test (LAT), two indirect hemagglutination tests (IHAT) (Carter-Wallace, USA and Ismunit, Italy), enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT). The percentage of sensitivity, specificity and coincidence value of these tests were compared with IFAT which was used as a reference test. For routine screening of toxoplasmosis, LAT has proved in this study to be the most suitable test. The LAT is cost effective and easy to perform. In this study of the three tests (IFAT, EIA, immunosorbent agglutination assay) to demonstrate specific IgM for toxoplasmosis, the EIA test proved to be the most satisfactory because of its 99% specificity. If EIA equipment is available, it can be used for routine screening (IgG) as well as IgM determination. The incidence of toxoplasmosis in pregnant women varied between 25.4% and 36.3% depending on the method used.