International Journal of Medical Laboratory

en Investigating Risk Factors and Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma Gondii Antibodies in Patients Referred to the Central Laboratory of Ilam City, Iran انگل شناسی Parasitology پژوهشي Research <div style="text-align: justify;">Background and Aims: Toxoplasmosis is a protozoan infection caused by a forced intracellular parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, a branch of the apicomplexa found in humans and numerous species of animals. This study aimed to determine the titer of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies in patients referred to the Central Laboratory of Ilam City and to define their effective factors in the prevalence of this disease using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Materials and Methods: The current study was a descriptive cross-sectional study with a random sampling of 116 patients' serum referred to the Central Laboratory of Ilam City. Samples were analyzed using ELISA for the presence of Immunoglobulin (Ig)M, IgG antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii. Results: Twenty-three samples (19.8%) out of 116 serum samples were detected using anti-Toxoplasma antibodies. Nineteen samples out of these 23 (16.4%) samples were antibody IgG while the other 4 were IgM antibodies. The results of the Chi-square test showed a significant difference between IgG-positive titer and sex, level of education, place of residence, age, and marital status; however, no significant difference was found between these variables and positive IgM titer. Conclusion: As a large number of people are susceptible to acute toxoplasmosis infection and lack proper health information, it is necessary to adopt monitoring and control measures by health care officials to prevent the infection through the necessary training and health recommendations.</div> ELISA, Risk factors, Seroepidemiologic studies, Toxoplasma gondii 238 246 http://ijml.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-500-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Soghra Viesy صغرا ویسی soghraviesy@gmail.com No Department of parasitology, Faculty of Paramedicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Paramedicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran Amin Jaydari امین جایدری jaydari.a@lu.ac.ir No Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran Jahangir Abdi جهانگیر عبدی jahangirabdi@gmail.com No Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Paramedicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Paramedicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran Iman Pouladi ایمان پولادی Imanpouladi96a@gmail.com 0000-0002-0640-2727 Yes Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Paramedicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Paramedicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran