Performance of seven commercial automated assays for the detection of low levels of anti-Toxoplasma IgG in French immunocompromised patients.

BACKGROUND

Immunocompromised patients are at high risk for the development of severe toxoplasmosis from tissue cyst reactivation, the most frequently, or from recently acquired acute infections. Knowledge of serologic status is therefore crucial. Screening for toxoplasmosis is sometimes performed while patients are already immunocompromised and have a low or even undetectable IgG titer by routine automated enzyme immunoassays. The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity and specificity of seven reagents for the detection of low levels of IgG. Sera from 354 patients were collected and analysed.

RESULTS

Elecsys® offered the best analytic performances, superior to those of Architect® and Platelia®, which were superior to those of Access II® and TGS TA®. Vidas II® and Liaison II® reagents exhibited poor analytical performances in this cohort. For Elecsys®, Platelia® and Architect®, new thresholds for the grey zone and positive zone have been defined to improve the sensitivity of these reagents while maintaining excellent specificity.

CONCLUSIONS

Commercialized assays for toxoplasmosis screening are not suitable for IgG low-level detection in patients without adapting the supplier thresholds to avoid false negative results and risk generalized toxoplasmosis.