%0 Journal Article %A Iqbal, Jamshaid %A Khalid, Nabila %T Detection of acute Toxoplasma gondii infection in early pregnancy by IgG avidity and PCR analysis %D 2007 %J Journal of Medical Microbiology, %V 56 %N 11 %P 1495-1499 %@ 1473-5644 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.47260-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X Acute Toxoplasma gondii infection in early pregnancy carries the risk of transmitting the infection to the fetus with serious sequelae. However, serological testing for IgG/IgM anti-Toxoplasma antibodies may fail to differentiate between a recent and past infection. Two hundred and twenty-four Kuwaiti women in their first trimester were screened for IgG/IgM antibodies by the Vitek Immuno Diagnostic Assay System (VIDAS) and VIDAS IgG-avidity tests. On serological screening, 119 (53.1 %) women were positive for IgG antibodies and 31 (13.8 %) for IgM antibodies. Nine of the IgM-positive and 7 IgM-negative women had low-avidity antibodies. However, the IgG-avidity test detected low-avidity antibodies only in 9 (29 %) of the 31 IgM-positive women, suggesting a recent infection; 19 (61.3 %) women had high-avidity antibodies, indicating that the infection was acquired in the distant past. Based on IgM serology alone, at least 31 IgM-positive women may have been wrongly labelled as having acute Toxoplasma infection thus warranting appropriate therapeutic intervention. All the 19 IgM-positive women with high-avidity antibodies were confirmed negative for Toxoplasma DNA on PCR analysis. Compared with PCR analysis, the VIDAS avidity test was a helpful tool for the diagnosis of recent Toxoplasma infection in IgM-negative women with low-avidity antibodies and IgM-positive women with high-avidity antibodies; the specificity was >85 –100 %. It is concluded that the VIDAS avidity test when used in combination with VIDAS IgG/IgM tests is a valuable assay for the exclusion of ongoing or recently acquired T. gondii infection in pregnant women in their first trimester and that it decreases significantly the necessity for follow-up testing and unnecessary therapeutic intervention. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.47260-0