All serum samples were tested at the Center for Diagnosis and Study of Parasitic Diseases, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania. A Pastorex Toxo kit (Bio-Rad, Marnes-la-Coquette, France) was used to simultaneously detect the presence of IgG and/or IgM antibodies to T. gondii. Previous reports showed an excellent ability to detect T. gondii antibodies in patients with acute and chronic toxoplasmosis for this latex particle agglutination test [29 ,30 (link),31 (link)].
To identify the presence of serum anti-T. gondii IgM antibodies and evaluation of IgG avidity, the enzyme-linked fluorescent assay (ELFA) designed for VIDAS (bioMérieux, Marcy-l’Etoile, France) was used. ELFA IgM (VIDAS Toxo IgM kit) has a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 98.6% [32 (link),33 ]. An accuracy of 93.4% in detecting a T. gondii infection dating more than 4 months was recently found for IgG avidity Vidas [34 (link)]. Quality controls and testing and interpretation of results were based on the manufacturer’s criteria.
To identify the presence of serum anti-T. gondii IgM antibodies and evaluation of IgG avidity, the enzyme-linked fluorescent assay (ELFA) designed for VIDAS (bioMérieux, Marcy-l’Etoile, France) was used. ELFA IgM (VIDAS Toxo IgM kit) has a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 98.6% [32 (link),33 ]. An accuracy of 93.4% in detecting a T. gondii infection dating more than 4 months was recently found for IgG avidity Vidas [34 (link)]. Quality controls and testing and interpretation of results were based on the manufacturer’s criteria.
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