The author has previously published manuscripts and is an active

The author has previously published manuscripts and is an active collaborator with one of the co-authors of the article discussed;2 nonetheless, this article is independent of their past or

present collaborations. “
“Congenital toxoplasmosis is associated with considerable morbidity when untreated.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 From the time of the discovery of T. gondii-specific IgM in infants, 11 establishing the diagnosis of this infection has included the detection of T. gondii-specific IgM antibodies in serum of the newborn infant. However, whether this differs and the robustness of this test in different populations and regions

has not been defined. Lago, Oliveira, and Bender describe this website their click here experience with the presence of T. gondii IgM in sera obtained from congenitally infected infants whose mothers were tested prenatally or in which only the infants themselves were tested in the newborn period at a screening program. 12 They also noted the duration that the anti-T. gondii IgM could still be detected in sera from infants with congenital toxoplasmosis, in a carefully performed and well-described study. The investigators used an IgM enzyme linked fluorescent assay (ELFA) (BioMérieux – Marcy l’Etoile, France) to detect T. gondii-specific IgM in serum and a fluorometric enzyme immunoassay (FEIA) (iLabSystems – Helsinki, Finland) to detect T. gondii antibody in serum eluted from filter paper. These investigators described both the utility and limitations of Aldehyde dehydrogenase testing for T. gondii-specific IgM in sera of newborn infants with congenital toxoplasmosis in their region. They also highlight the circumstances in which the diagnosis can be missed, when this test is relied on exclusively. A careful characterization of this cohort of infants is also presented. There are three

missing sets of information that would help with full interpretation of their data: (1) specifics of treatment; (2) the reason(s) for the long time lag between finding a positive IgM antibody and initiating treatment for the group of infants diagnosed with newborn screening, and (3) clarification of why only ultrasound of the brain was used without brain computed tomography for some infants, and how many these were, since computed tomography is more sensitive for the detection of intracerebral calcifications. This study12 took place in Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, from 1998 to 2009, and involved 65 infants. Inclusion criteria for the study were: routine maternal or newborn serologic screening; diagnostic confirmation with persistent IgG anti-T.

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