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Table 3 Clinical sensitivity and specificity of different immunological and molecular methods for diagnosis of leishmaniases

From: Leishmaniases diagnosis: an update on the use of immunological and molecular tools

Method/clinical form

Specimen

Antigen/target

Sensitivity (%)

Specificity (%)

Reference (s)

Immunological tests:

ELISA/VL

Human serum

rK39

96

100

[19]

TRALd/VL

Human serum

rK39, K26

100

98

[24]

FC-ALPA/CL

Human serum

Live L. braziliensis promastigotes

85.7–97.9

76.0–93.7

[29]

FC-ALPA-IgG/CL

Human serum

Live L. braziliensis promastigotes

86

78

[30]

FC-AFPA-IgG/CL

Human serum

Fixed L. braziliensis promastigotes

90

78

[30]

Molecular tests:

cPCR/VL

Human blood

ITS-1, kDNA minicircle

53.7–97.78

61.82–100

[41, 51]

cPCR/VL

Canine blood

ITS-1, kDNA minicircle

72.2–98.7

83.3–96.4

[41, 43, 50]

qPCR/VL

Human blood

ITS-1, kDNA minicircle

91.3–100

29.6–100

[41, 51]

NASBA-OC/VL

Human blood

18S RNA; 18S DNA

79.8–93.3

100

[66, 67]

LAMP/VL

Human blood

kDNA minicircle

96.4

98.5

[72]

LAMP/PKDL

Human tissue biopsy

kDNA minicircle

96.8

98.5

[72]

LAMP/VL

Canine blood

cysteine Protease B (cpb)

38.2–69.5

65.2–89.5

[73]

  1. ELISA Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, TRALd Rapid Antibody Test Leishmania donovani. FC-ALPA/AFPA flow cytometry anti-live/fixed promastigote antibody, cPCR conventional PCR, qPCR real-time quantitative PCR, NASBA-OC Nucleic Acid Sequence-Based Assay- oligochromatography, LAMP Loop-mediated isothermal amplification