Determination of Specific Anti - Toxocara Antibodies in Patients with Cardiac Disease

Abstract

Aim of this study is to find the seroprevalence of specific anti - Toxocara IgG antibodies among patients with inflammatory heart disease and to evaluate the significance of this parasite as a possible etiological agent of such pathology. We performed a serological study of 41 patients with heart disease (myocarditis, pericarditis and endocarditis) for presence of specific anti-Toxocara IgG antibodies. We used ELISA for primary screening, and Western blot as a confirmatory method. Presence of specific anti-Toxocara IgG antibodies in ELISA was detected in three (7.3%) of the serum samples, and another two (4.9%) were with borderline values. These serum samples were further examined in Western blot and three of them (7.3%) displayed disease-specific bands. We do not in any way claim that in these cases Toxocara infection is the cause of inflammatory heart disease, but the data from the study shows that such a link is possible.