Banding pattern indicative of echinococcosis in a commercial cysticercosis Western blot.

OBJECTIVE

A commercial cysticercosis Western blot was evaluated for serological cross-reactivity of sera from patients with alveolar (AE) and cystic echinococcosis (CE).

METHODS

A total of 161 sera were examined, including 31 sera from AE-patients, 11 sera from CE- patients, 9 sera from patients with other parasitic diseases and 109 sera from patients with unrelated medical conditions. All AE- and CE-sera were also examined by the echinococcosis Western blot.

RESULTS

More sera from patients with AE than with CE showed cross-reactivity in the form of ladder-like patterns ("Mikado aspect") and untypical bands at 6-8 kDa (71% and 77.4% versus 27.3% and 45.5%, respectively). In contrast, triplets of bands in the area above 50 kDa and between 24 and 39-42 kDa were more frequent in CE than in AE sera. The fuzzy band at 50-55 kDa typical for cysticercosis was absent in all AE and CE sera.

CONCLUSIONS

Atypical banding patterns in the cysticercosis Western blot should raise the suspicion of a meta?cestode infection different from Taenia solium, i.e. Echinococcus multilocularis or E. granulosus, especially when the Mikado aspect and an altered 6-8 kDa band is visible in the absence of a fuzzy 50-55 kDa band.