Frequency of Toxocara Antibodies in Patients Clinically Suspected to Ocular Toxocariasis, Northeast of Iran

Background: human toxocariasis is a neglected parasitic disease in most countries in-cluding iran. among different clinical forms of toxocariasis, ocular toxocariasis (ot) is an important disease resulting in severe vision loss. however, the prevalence and inci-dence of ot are currently unclear in iran. this study aimed to determine the prevalence of ocular toxocariasis among patients with uveitis in the northeast of iran. methods: from 2015 to 2017, 510 patients with uveitis referred to khatam-al-anbia, a tertiary eye hospital at mashhad, iran were examined for ot. serum samples of the sus-pected patients were obtained and evaluated for igg against toxocara canis using elisa test. anti-toxocara igg positive serums were further investigated using confirmatory western blotting (wb) analysis. results: twenty patients had pathologic changes and clinical presentations in the anteri-or and posterior segments of their eyes and they were clinically diagnosed ocular toxoca-riasis. among the 20 patients, 2 (10%) patients showed igg antibody against toxocara canis on elisa as well as on wb test. the calculated prevalence of ocular toxocariasis was about 0.4%. conclusion: ocular toxocariasis can be diagnosed both clinically and serologically in mashhad, northeastern iran. although ot is a rare pathologic eye disease, it should be considered as one of the important cause of infectious posterior uveitis.