Predictive value of gelatin particle agglutination test (GPAT) in early leprosy diagnosis. GPAT using semi-synthetic trisaccharide antigen (manufactured by FUJIREBIO INC, Japan and provided by WHO) has been applied to 680 households contacts of leprosy cases and 350 healthy people living in areas of leprosy. Some interesting conclusions have been made by the authors: - GPAT was positive in 20% of household contacts as compared to only 3.1% of apparently non- contact people. - Among 135 household contacts showing positive GPAT, 17 have developed leprosy (12.6%), while among 884 people with GPAT negative, none (0%) has developed the diseases during the same period of follow-up. - In children, a high titer of antibodies constitutes a valuable indicator of high risk in developing the disease: 63.1% of them developed leprosy while it was only 7.7% in adult. -More interesting, 100% children with GPAT positive at serum dilution of 1:64 or over and whose father/ mother being leprosy patients have developed the disease. - GPAT has a important role in early leprosy diagnosis
Leprosy ; Gelatin ; diagnosis