In this study we evaluated three immunologic methods for confirmation of clinical diagnosis of Chagas' disease, in 120 in-patients. The skin testing with the T12E antigen and the immunofluorescence were positive in 10% of cases. The hemagglutination was positive in 14.1% of these patients. The co-positivity of results of skin-testing with hemagglutination and of this latter with immunofluorescence reached 7.5% of cases. However, only 5% of co-positivity was achieved with results of skin testing, immunofluorescence and hemagglutination. Furthermore, 19.1% of the in¬patients showed at least one out of these exams to be positive. The specificity of the skin testing paralleled that of the immunofluorescence. The sensitivity of these exames, however, was lower than that obtained by the indirect hemagglutination. These data show that the skin testing with T12E antigen allows the diagnosis of Chagas' disease by a simple and handy method.
Delayed-type skin hypersensitivity; T12E antigen; Chagas' disease