Parasitol Res (2012) 110:2187–2191 DOI 10.1007/s00436-011-2747-z ORIGINAL PAPER Evaluation of an immunodot blot technique for the detection of antibodies against Taenia solium larval antigens Fernando Salazar-Anton & Aleyda Tellez & Johan Lindh Received: 28 September 2011 / Accepted: 30 November 2011 / Published online: 4 January 2012 # The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Immunodiagnostic tests represent an important tool for diagnosis of cysticercosis, the disease caused by cysticerci of Taenia solium. Accurate diagnosis of neurocysticercosis (NCC) requires costly neuroimaging techniques (magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography), which are seldom affordable for people in endemic countries. Hence, new low-cost diagnostic methods offering good sensitivity and specificity are needed. Here, we studied four immunodi- agnostic tests immunodot blot Tsol-p27, a commercial ELISA, and Western blot Tsol-p27/TsolHSP36, and compared them with a commercial enzyme-linked immunoelectrotrans- fer blot (EITB) that we regarded as the gold standard method. The analyzed serum samples were obtained from 160 patients: 94 epileptics suspected of NCC, six individuals confirmed NCC-positive, and 60 with positive (30) or negative (30) Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00436-011-2747-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. F. Salazar-Anton : J. Lindh Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, P.O. Box 280, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden F. Salazar-Anton : A. Tellez Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, León, Nicaragua A. Tellez Infectious Disease Center, Faculty of Medical Science, National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, León, Nicaragua J. Lindh (*) Epidemiology and Evaluation, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, SE-171 82, Solna, Sweden e-mail: johan.lindh@smi.se serology for Chagas diseases. Of the 100 serum samples from epileptic patients, 13 were positive and 87 negative by EITB. Compared to Western blot Tsol-p27, immunodot blot Tsol- p27 offered similar specificity (97.8% vs. 95.6%) but better sensitivity (86.7% vs. 76.4%). The ELISA was similar to the immunodot blot Tsol-p27 regarding both sensitivity and spec- ificity. Western blot TsolHSP36 provided the lowest sensitiv- ity (61.9%) and specificity (86.1%). None of the antibodies in the serum samples from the Chagas control groups were recognized by immunodot blot Tsol-p27. Our results indicate that the immunodot blot Tsol-p27 provides good sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, considering the simplicity and low cost of this test, it might be preferable as a diagnostic method in poorly equipped laboratories in endemic countries. Introduction Cysticercosis is a disease caused by larval stages (metacest- odes) of Taenia solium, which is considered a public health problem in many low-income countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Notably, this illness is now also emerging in some high-income nations as the result of travel to or immigration from endemic areas (Mahanty and Garcia 2010; Sciutto et al. 2000). Cysticercosis develops after accidental ingestion of T. solium eggs passed in the feces of human hosts harboring the adult stage of the parasite in their intestines. Once inside a human, the oncospheres hatch and penetrate the intestinal wall, and subsequently invade various tissues, where they encyst to form cysticerci (Flisser 1994; Raether and Hanel 2003). The main clinical manifes- tation of the infection is neurocysticercosis (NCC), which occurs when cysticerci are established in the tissues of the brain and central nervous system (Garcia et al. 2002). The clinical signs and symptoms of NCC are inconsistent and