Neurocysticercosis: HP10 Antigen Detection Is Useful for the Follow-up of the Severe Patients

Background: the most severe clinical form of neurocysticercosis (nc) occurs when cysticerci are located in the subarachnoid space at the base of the brain (sab). the diagnosis,monitoring and treatment of nc-sab,constitutes a severe clinical challenge. herein we evaluate the potential of the hp10 antigen detection enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (hp10 ag-elisa) in the long term follow-up of nc-sab cases. assay performance was compared with that of magnetic resonance imaging (mri). in addition,the robustness of the hp10 ag-elisa was evaluated independently at two different institutions. methodology/principal findings: a double-blind prospective cohort trial was conducted involving 38 nc-sab cases and a total of 108 paired serum and cerebrospinal fluid (csf) samples taken at intervals of 4 to 8 months for up to 43 months. at each medical visit,results of sera and csf hp10 ag-elisa and mri obtained at last visit were compared and their accuracy was evaluated retrospectively,considering radiological evolution between appointments. in the long-term follow-up study,hp10 ag-elisa had a better agreement than mri with retrospective radiological evaluation. high reproducibility of hp10 ag-elisa between laboratories was also demonstrated. conclusions: results reported in this study establish for the first time the usefulness of the comparatively low cost hp10 ag-elisa for long term follow-up of nc-sab patients. © 2013 fleury et al.