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Background: We aimed to evaluate the diagnosis of acute toxoplasmosis by IgG avidity test in pregnant women. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 250 blood samples were collected from pregnant women with the first month of their pregnancy referring to health centers of University in Mashhad during 2016. Samples were centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 5 min for separation of serum and were kept in the -20 until use. To detection of acute and chronic toxoplasmosis, anti-Toxoplasma antibodies (IgG and IgM, and IgG avidity tests were performed using ELISA. Then, data analyzed using SPSS software by Frequency, Pearson Chi-Square, Likelihood Ratio, and Exact tests. And P<0.05 was statistically considered as significant. Results: Total prevalence of IgG and IgM was 23.2% and 7.2%, respectively. A significant correlation was observed between the mean age and IgG level (P<0.05). It was not found any correlation between the history of raw meat consumption, cats keeping, education, and residency site. Moreover, 16 people (6.4%) had IgM antibody, of which, 10 cases (62.5%) with low avidity for IgG and 1 people (6.2%) with moderate avidity and 5 cases (31.3%) with high avidity for IgG. Moreover, 76% of pregnant women were seronegative. Conclusion: More than half of the women (62.5%) with positive IgM antibody in their serum had a low avidity for IgG which revealed an acute infection among pregnant women. Toxoplasma infection should be considered as an important factor that affects the pregnancy and IgG avidity as an important test for screening the women who need the treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Toxoplasma specific IgM antibodies; the common serologic marker in diagnosis of acute toxoplasmosis has its own limitations. Confirmatory testing with other markers, introduced as a complementary tool in distinguish acute and chronic infections is unusual in Iran. In the present study, we investigated the correlation between the results of IgM ELISA, IgA ELISA, and IgG avidity tests in the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis to demonstrate the necessity of confirmatory testing in serodiagnosis of infection in the country. Methods: A total of 107 positive Toxoplasma IgG and IgM sera were obtained from patients referred to private laboratories and stored at -20 °C for futures use. Serologic tests were set up in duplicate to analyze the serum levels of IgG, IgM, IgA, and IgG avidity antibodies using commercial ELISA kits. The results were presented as semi quantitative for IgG, IgM and IgA ELISA, and Relative Avidity Index in percentage for IgG avidity test. Pearson's correlation coefficient (rp) was applied to analyze the data. Results: Of 107 serum samples, T. gondii specific IgM and IgA antibodies were positive in 67.3% and 53.3%, respectively. Besides, 29.9% of the sera displayed low avidity for IgG antibodies. The rp was - 0.572 (P<0.01) between the IgG avidity and IgM ELISA, - 0.364 between the IgG avidity and IgA ELISA (P<0.01), and 0.564 between the IgM and IgA ELISA (P<0.01). Conclusion: The study strongly highlights the necessity of confirmatory testing in differential diagnosis of acute and chronic toxoplasmosis in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]