Evaluation of Two Immunodiagnostic Assays (MAT and IFA) for Human Leptospirosis in Gilan Province - Iran

Background: leptospirosis is a systemic infectious disease caused by pathogenic bacteriabelonging to the species of leptospira, it is considered to be the most common zoonosisin the world. this is a serious and sometimes fatal infection which is transmittedfrom animals to humans by entering the digestive tract or mucosal membrane. withinthe initial 10-12 day period, the patient may experience no or relatively minor symptoms,then the bacteria enters the blood system and causes contamination of the internal organs,especially the liver.objectives: this study prospectively evaluated two serological methods, the microscopic agglutinationtest (mat) and indirect immunofluorescence assay (ifa) with the aim of identifyingleptospiral agents quickly, in order to prevent and control leptospirosis diseases.patients and methods: in this study, 90 blood samples and their serums, were collectedfrom patients showing clinical symptoms of leptospirosis, and these were analyzed withmat and ifa tests, to test for the presence of leptospiral agglutinins. in this study weused five serogroups of leptospira interrogans, which have been identified as the dominantserogroups in iran (pomona, canicola, grippotyphosa, icterohaemorrhagiae andsejro hardjo).results: the results obtained showed that when compared to the ifa, the mat was amore sensitive test. the ifa method also identified certain specific properties of the serogroups;pomona, canicola and icterohaemorragiae, which are detailed in the article.conclusions: serological testing is the most widely used method for diagnosing leptospirosis,and the mat is considered to be the gold standard test for the diagnosis anddetection of leptospiral antibodies in both human and animal sera, for the infecting serovarand serogroup.