A discrepancy between cystic echinococcosis confirmed by ultrasound and seropositivity in Turkish children

In three randomly selected villages of Manisa, Turkey, 630 primary school children were examined for cystic echinococcosis (CE) by a portable ultrasound scanner (US) and chest microfilm. Sera samples of 483 (76.7%) children were tested for anti-E. granulosus antibodies by ELISA and indirect hemagglutination (IHA) tests. Hepatic CE were detected in two cases (0.3%) by US, while 43 (8.9%) and 49 (10.1%) cases were found to be positive for CE by ELISA and IHA, respectively. The high seropositivity levels could have been attributed to extra-abdominal or abortive Echinococcus infections, but probably most of them were false-positives. Due to the discrepancy in results, US should be selected as the primary test in field studies and serologic tests should be performed in all cases with suspected lesions. We could not find any reported community based study on CE in Turkey, in which US was applied; but our results suggest that extensive epidemiological studies are required.