ABSTRACT

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease caused by the Apicomplexan protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. Toxoplasmosis is generally asymptomatic or characterized either with regional lymphadenopathy or a flu-like illness in immunocompetant patients. On the other hand , it can have deleterious ef-fects with fetal consequences on fetuses, newborns and immunocompromised patients. As histo-logical diagnosis and isolation from tissues is labor-intensive, time-consuming and less sensitive than indirect diagnostic methods, serology became the main diagnostic choice in toxoplasmosis. Antibody types and different serological methods which are suitable for the diagnosis of toxoplas-mosis in different patient groups were reviewed. Some new and improved immunological techni-ques used for the detection of toxoplasmosis in pregnant women and newborns were summari-zed and the problems due to the difficulty of interpretation of serological results were discussed.