An evaluation study of Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) using recombinant protein Pap31 for detection of antibody against Bartonella bacilliformis infection among the Peruvian population

Reliable laboratory testing is of great importance to detect Bartonella bacilliformis infection. We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using recombinant protein Pap31 (rPap31) for the detection of antibodies against B. bacilliformis as compared with immunofluorescent assay (IFA). Of the 302 sera collected between 1997 and 2000 among an at-risk Peruvian population, 103 and 34 samples tested positive for IFA-immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IFA-IgM, respectively. By using Youden's index, the cutoff values of ELISA-IgG at 0.915 gave a sensitivity of 84.5% and specificity of 94%. The cutoff values of ELISA-IgM at 0.634 gave a sensitivity of 88.2% and specificity of 85.1%. Using latent class analysis, estimates of sensitivity and specificity of almost all the assays were slightly higher than those of a conventional method of calculation. The test is proved beneficial for discriminating between infected and non-infected individuals with the advantage of low-cost and high-throughput capability.