Development of an immunochromatographic test to detect antibodies against recombinant Em18 for diagnosis of alveolar echinococcosis

An immunochromatographic test (ICT) for the rapid detection of antibodies to Echinococcus multilocularis was developed. The ICT showed a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 95.4%. High degrees of agreement were observed between the ICT and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (kappa = 0.93) and between the ICT and immunoblot analysis (kappa = 0.97). It is expected that the ICT developed in this study will be useful for the serodiagnosis of alveolar echinococcosis.