DIAGNÓSTICO SOROLÓGICO, ISOLAMENTO E ...

ABSTRACT
Toxoplasmosis is a cosmopolitan disease caused by the protozoarian Toxoplasma gondii. Infection
transmision may occur by the ingestion of raw or undercooked meat, contaminated water or food,
unpasteurized milk, organ or tissue transplantation, blood transfusion, contact with contaminated
cat feces or across the placenta in vertical transmission. The illness is usually asymptomatic in
immunocompetent individuals, but in immunocompromised patients and fetuses during early
pregnancy it can lead into severe symptoms and sequelae. The diagnosis can be made through
several non-automated and most of the cases automated immunoassays, direct parasitological
methods, cell culture and mouse inoculation, and more recently by polimerase chain reaction (PCR)
and its diagnostic variants and also molecular characterization to define a specific genotype.
Despite of the high prevalence of infected individuals throughout the world (20 – 90%), in few
European Union countries, like France and Austria, the mean incidence of fetal toxoplasmosis was
reduced from 40% to 7%. In such countries serological screening for toxoplasmosis in pregnant
women is mandatory. In this chapter are discussed: historical aspects of Toxoplasma gondii and
toxoplasmosis, as well as biological cycle of the parasite, epidemiology and diagnostic methods.
Key Words: Toxoplamosis, Toxoplasma gondii, immuoassays, PCR
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