The seroepidemiologic studies on anti-Toxoplasma antibody titers were carried out using ELISA and indirect latex agglutination test. Among 899 sera prepared from pregnant women, 39 cases (4.3%) revealed positive reaction and 218 sera from middle school students showed 4 positive reaction (1.8%) by ELISA. By LAT(newly established by National Veterinary Research Institute, Korea), the sera of 7 pregnant women (0.8%) showed positive reaction. When 80 sera showing +S1:8 by LAT were used for comparing the results obtained from LAT and Toxotest-MT (Eiken Chemical Co., Japan), 7 cases and 8 sera were positive, respectively. All of 11 sera of proven toxoplasmosis patients showed positive reaction in both tests. Overall proportion of agreement between LAT kit and Toxotest-MT was 0.94( -index= 0.632, p<0.01), and LAT was considered to be useful for the screening of toxoplasmosis.
parasitology-protozoa ; Toxoplasma gondii ; indirect latex agglutination test ; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ; pregnant women

A total of 573 patients hospitalized in National Seoul Mental Hospital and 76 of healthy persons as control were examined by indirect latex agglutination test in order to evaluate Toxoplasma antibody titers in mental patients. Throughout this survey, 1:32 or more titers of diluted sera were regarded as positive. The 573 samples of test sera showed negative in 386 cases (67.4 percent), 1:2 in 93 cases (16.2 percent), 1:4 in 57 cases (9.9 percent), 1:8 in 14 cases (2.4 percent), 1:16 in 12 cases (2.1 percent), 1:32 in 5 cases (0.9 percent), 1:64 in 1 case (0.2 percent), 1:128 in 3 cases (0.5 percent) and 1:256 in 2 cases (0.3 percent) respectively. Among total 573 mental patients, 11 cases (19 percent) showed positive, and they were 9 cases (1.8 percent) of schizophrenia and 2 cases (7.4 percent) of manic depression. One case (1.3 percent) out of 76 control sera showed positive result.
parasitology-protozoa ; Toxoplasma gondii ; immunology ; indirect latex agglutination test ; schizophrenia ; manic depression