ABSTRACT

Toxoplasmosis involving all organs is a protozoal infection caused by Toxoplasma gondii. It is usually asymptomatic. Since T. gondii is very difficult to show directly or to produce on cultural media in diagnosis serological methods are preferred. But IgM antibodies which occur in the acute phase lasts very long in serum. So this leads to wrong acute infection diagnoses. Studies conducted show us that low avidity means the infection occurred in the last 3-4 months, high avidity means the infection occurred at least 6 months before. Due to this, avidity tests are used often in differentiation between acute and chronic disease. In our study we aimed to determine Toxoplasma seroprevalence and avidity values in pregnants.

102 healthy pregnants with gestational ages between 5 and 30 weeks are examined. Anti toxoplasma IgM and IgG antibodies are searched with ELISA (Meddens Diagnostics). Toxoplasma IgG avidity tests were done with ELISA (Radim-WELL) which were IgG positive.

50% of the pregnants were IgG positive, while none were IgM positive. Low avidity value was not found in 51 pregnants who were determined IgG positive. Intermediate avidity values were in 3.9%; high avidity values were in 96.1% of cases.

As a result we found Toxoplasma seropositivity 50% in healthy pregnant. High IgG avidity was found conform with past infections. We observed that seropositivity increased with raw meat consumption, cat contact and low economic income but there was no statistical significance.

Keywords: Avidity, pregnant, Toxoplasma gondii