An antigen-capture ELISA using monoclonal antibody (MAb) 128C3/3/21 was used to detect circulating parasite-derived antigens in the sera of patients actively infected with Schistosoma haematobium (31 males and four females, 5-25 years of age). The assay had a sensitivity of 100% (35 of 35 patients with antigen levels Ͼ 80 ng/ml) and a specificity Ͼ 99%. We used this ELISA to monitor antigenemia before treatment and one, three, and six months after treatment with a single oral dose of praziquantel (PZQ) (60 mg/kg in 20 patients or 40 mg/kg in 15 patients) and compared our findings with those indicated by other measures of disease progression. Circulating antigen levels decreased drastically after PZQ treatment (P Ͻ 0.001), with a significantly higher decrease occurring after treatment with 60 mg/kg than with 40 mg/kg. Although the mean antigen level was still significantly reduced (P Ͻ 0.001) at six months after treatment, 16 patients remained antigen-positive after six months, and nine had increased levels of antigenemia, reflecting reinfection in six patients and persistence of infection in another. We observed a correlation (r ϭ 0.6, P Ͻ 0.01) between the level of circulating antigen and the intensity of infection as measured by egg count. We also found a direct relationship (P Ͻ 0.001) between antigen level and the severity of the disease as monitored by ultrasonography. We conclude that our ELISA may be a useful adjunct to other methods, such as ultrasonography, for monitoring the course of S. haematobium infection and treatment.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effect of the ethanolic extract of Syzygium aromaticum to albino rats. Forty eight Albino rats were employed to test the safety and the anti-inflammatory effect of the extract. Safety of the extract was examined on experimental animal's model at three dose levels of the extract orally in daily doses for three weeks. Effects of S. aromaticum on rats revealed no significant effect on biochemical or haematological parameters. The anti-inflammatory effect of the extract was tested in four equal groups; groups 1 and 2 were treated with 250 and 500 mg/kg of the extract, respectively, group 3 was treated with indomethacine and group 4 was the untreated control. Carrageenan was used as an acute form inducer of inflammation. Indomethacine, the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), was used as a reference compound. Oedema size was monitored at the 1 st , 2 nd , 4 th , 6 th and after 24 hours. The ethanolic extract of S. aromaticum showed significant (P < 0.001) decreased in the oedema size at efficacy rates of 79.41%, 82.39% and 63.92% for the dose, 500 mg/kg body weight at the 2 nd , 4 th and 6 th hour respectively higher than that produced by indomethacine.