seroepidemiological study of hydatid cyst using agb by elisa in patients admitted to central laboratory of baqiyatallah hospital

Background: one of the most important parasitic diseases in human is cystic echinococcosis (ce) which is caused by the larval stage of echinococcus granulosus. the disease is a health problem in the middle east countries such as iran. objective: the aim of this study was seroepidemiological evaluation of human ce using antigen b by elisa technique in patients referred to baqiyatallah hospital, tehran, iran. materials and methods: a total of 909 serum samples were randomly prepared in the central laboratory. antigen b was extracted from sheep hydatid cyst fluid (hcf). all serum samples were evaluated by indirect elisa and the suspected cases were rechecked. demographic characteristics were collected by a questionnaire and cutoff was calculated as x±2sd. results: in the present study, 0.8% of the collected samples were seropositive by elisa technique. of the 909 participants, 498 (with 1% positive response) and 411 (with 0.49% positive response) were female and male, respectively. the majority of the cases were the employee and retired military personnel (with 1.05% positive response). the most frequent age ranges were 5059 and 7079 with 28.57% positive response in each and in participants with academic education (85.72%). there was no statistically significant association between hydatid cyst and variables evaluated in this study. conclusion: our results showed a low seroprevalence of human ce. it may be related to the lifestyle of people following the improvement in public health specially in urban communities.