Often when diagnosing giardiasis in a child and an adult, an enzyme immunoassay is used. Its interpretation helps not only to get a positive response, but to understand at what stage of development the infection is. Any deviation from the norm according to the indications of blood is an excuse for unrest. Experienced laboratory assistants are now able to determine the summary indicators on them, to determine whether the patient has immunity to lamblia, the dynamics of the infection, and whether the treatment given after the initial diagnosis produced a positive result.
Given the fact that any parasitic diseases are a serious problem, there is no reason to doubt the need for an ELISA( enzyme immunoassay).Knowing what a similar study is, what totals it provides, how the answers are deciphered, what is the norm, which means "positive" or "negative", help to understand how important it is to choose the right diagnostic method.
Results of the blood test on the lamblia
So, our body has an immune defense system that can recognize foreign compounds, by producing antibodies - specific protein compounds( immunoglobulins).The total number of antibodies helps to detect abnormalities and put an accurate diagnosis. Venous blood is used as a biomaterial. Its fence is made from a child's ulnar vein or an adult by a syringe. To hand over the analysis is better on an empty stomach( from the moment of last reception of food should not pass less than twelve hours).
If the patient is taking any medications, this must be reported to the laboratory assistant and the treating physician. The matter is that some means are capable to influence final total marks( to show positive reaction, for example, at absence of carrier), therefore decoding in this case will not be authentic. It is also necessary to give up alcohol. With giardiasis, specific immunoglobulins are found in the blood. Their groups are denoted by Latin letters( A, M, G).At different stages of the infection, immunoglobulins of different classes accumulate.
So, for example, antibodies of class M give the result "positively".They accumulate in the initial stages of giardiasis, similar compounds appear in the blood already on the fifth day after infection and remain there for six weeks. Their total number indicates the peak of the acute phase of giardiasis. Very soon( within a week) the number of antibodies of class M begins to decline rapidly. When giardiasis passes into a chronic stage of development, class G immunoglobulins accumulate in the blood. They remain after treatment, so positive analysis immediately after it is the norm, it should not make you worry and think that time was wasted.
Since the number of compounds described in the human blood can be different, the coefficient of positivity has its own scale.
How does the lamblia analysis stand?
The result is "negative" when the positivity coefficient is from 0 to 0.84.Such markers can occur in different cases:
- In the absence of giardiasis.
- In the very first days after infection( a week or two after infection).
- In case of a malfunction of the immune system.
The overall negative result is not an excuse for completely denying carriage. Such answers are always rechecked. This is done in order to produce differential diagnosis of diseases having a giardiasis-like clinic.
A "positive" conclusion is given when the positivity coefficient is from one or more. Positive result says:
- On the course of acute or chronic form of Giardiasis.
- About a recently transferred infection, provoked by parasitism of flagellated microorganisms.
- The conclusion "positively" is capable of talking about the carriage of G. lamblia.
- On the possible presence of any other parasites.
Along with the study of blood for antibodies and antigens, the patient can be assigned a blood test to identify eosinophilia. This is a special condition of the body, in which there is a sharp increase in the amount of eosinophils in the blood. Normally, it is 0.02 × 109 to 0.3 × 109 per liter. Any increase in values (in this case, the patient will receive a response "positively") is an occasion to suspect a helminthic invasion or parasitic protozoa. Accelerated destruction of erythrocytes leads to a rise in bilirubin and a decrease in hemoglobin, so a general study of blood can also become an indirect diagnostic method.
The presence of single( single) lamblia does not give a positive result. In order for the infection to occur, it is necessary that at least ten cysts enter the human intestine. Of each, at least two lamblia are reproduced, which means that when diagnosing carriage in the intestine, at least twenty trophozoites live, actively parasitizing and very rapidly multiplying. Summing up, we can safely talk about the benefits of the described study.
The summary values of ELISA provide rather high-precision indices, which differ drastically from the norm. They can not be called questionable. With the help of them, you can conduct early diagnosis of Giardiasis. To get total positive or negative marks spend a lot of time is not necessary. The patient gets decoded after two hours.