Evaluation of Setaria cervi antigen in the diagnosis of human filariasis

Bovine filariid worm (Setaria cervi) antigen was evaluated for the immunodiagnosis of human filariasis. Patients with manifestations of filarial infection; 1) microfilaremia cases, (2) chronic clinical cases, (3) tropical pulmonary eosinophilia (TPE) cases) were taken for the investigations along with (4) normal endemic and non-endemic human subjects. CIEP, IFAT and ELISA tests were employed for detection of serum antibodies. There was a high degree of sensitivity shown by IFAT (1:64-1:256) and ELISA (1:200-1:20,800) in microfilaraemia cases and higher in chronic clinical cases with IFAT (1:128-1:1,024) and ELISA (1:12,800-1:102,400). Only one TPE case showed positive titre by IFAT (1:64) and ELISA (1:200) whereas sera from controls and patients with helminth infections did not show positive titres (1:100). In the case of CIEP, positive reaction was seen in only one case from group I.