Jafar E. Jameela and Mamdouh H. Abdel-ghaffar
Abstract
Most of hospitals and private health clinics depend on microscopic examination for diagnosis Entamoeba infection and did not distinguish between pathogenic and non-pathogenic species, therefore, the present study was aimed to determine the prevalence of intestinal Entamoeba which causes gastroenteritis and distinguishes between the pathogenic and non-pathogenic species using microscopic examination, and serologically using Immuno chromatographic antigen assay. A total of 390 stool samples were collected from patients with bloody mucus diarrhea and/or gastroenteritis. The overall prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection in this study was 48/390 (12.31%), among these, Entamoeba was detected with percentage of 8.33% (24/288) and 17.64% (18/102) in Saudi and non-Saudi patients respectively. However, males were found with a higher percentage of infection (13.02%) compared with females (8.00%). Out of 390 samples, 42(10.77%) and 32(8.21%) were positive for Entamoeba using microscopic examination and Vitassay immunoassay respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of Vitassay immunoassay for detection of Entamoeba were calculated against microscopic method and found to be 66.66% and 99.85% respectively. The results of species identification of Entamoeba using Immuno Card STAT CGE parasite panel revealed that the total of 32 cases which determined as Entamoeba using Vitassay immunoassay, 24 and 8 cases identified as E. histolytica and E. dispar respectively. There for we strongly recommend the species identification of Entamoeba by antigen detection method which is crucial for clinical management of patients.