These elevated serological responses indicate that Cryptosporidium infections among Collingwood residents likely occurred more commonly than illness reports suggested, consistent with a community-wide cryptosporidiosis epidemic. Similar studies should be considered in future suspected cryptosporidiosis epidemic investigations.

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Objectives We evaluated the use of treponemal serum tests in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to diagnose neurosyphilis since CSF–Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) is specific but lacks sensitivity. Methods We tested CSF specimens using the following treponemal serum tests: INNO-LIA, Treponema pallidum particle agglutination (TP-PA), Trep-Sure, and Maxi-Syph. The reference standard to calculate sensitivity and specificity was having two or more reactive/positive tests on CSF. Results The reference standard group included 11 cases that fulfilled the definition of neurosyphilis (reactive CSF-VDRL plus symptoms) and three cases that did not fulfill the definition: two cases had neurologic symptoms but a nonreactive CSF-VDRL, and one had several positive CSF syphilis tests (reactive VDRL and positive treponemal and syphilis polymerase chain reaction) but no history (referred sample). Controls included 18 patients in whom a CSF-VDRL was performed the same week as patients in the reference group. The sensitivity was 85.7% (12/14) for CSF-VDRL, 92.9% (13/14) for Trep-Sure, 100% (10/10) for Maxi-Syph, 92.3% (12/13) for INNO-LIA, and 83.3% (10/12) for TP-PA. Specificity was 100% for all tests. Conclusions Treponemal serum tests performed on CSF were useful in identifying two patients with nonreactive CSF-VDRL.

It has been suggested elsewhere that the enteric pathogen Yersinia enterocolitica (Y.e.) might be implicated etiologically in autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). To reevaluate this hypothesis in the Canadian population, where the prevalence of anti-Y.e. antibodies in the general population is very low (< 1%), we have studied the occurrence of antibacterial reactivity (against Y.e. 0:3 and 0:9, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus) in the sera of patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), Graves' disease (GD), nontoxic nodular goiter (NTG), and autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARD) as well as normal controls (C). Using the tube agglutination method, no single positive sample was detected in these subjects. No differences in the mean levels of anti-Y.e. 0:3 or 0:9 by ELISA were observed between various groups of patients. Immunoreactivity in the course of medical therapy during 5-12 months did not show significant changes in any of 12 ARD and AITD patients. Some serological reactivity to the plasmid containing strain of Y.e. 0:3 was demonstrated in all subjects by the Western blotting technique. However, weaker signals and fewer bands were noticed in these sera compared to sera from patients with acute yersiniosis. Analysis of the pattern of reactivity did not show any difference in reactivity to any protein between the groups of subjects. The immunodominant antigen in Y.e. 0:3 to which IgG reacted in almost all subjects was the plasmid encoded 240-kDa protein. Our study favors the view that there is a merely coincidental incidence of seroreactivity to bacterial antigens, which appears to be irrespective of diagnosis.

A highly specific enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was developed for the serodiagnosis of blastomycosis. Among the earliest sera available from eight active cases of blastomycosis, seven were reactive by EIA, three by immunodiffusion, and three by complement fixation. The one seronegative case was associated with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). No cross-reaction was observed with sera from 12 patients with active histoplasmosis or from five patients with active coccidioidomycosis or from 23 healthy persons. In contrast, all patients' sera cross-reacted in conventional EIAs based on commercial immunodiffusion antigens. The blastomycosis-specific EIA seems to offer sensitivity without compromising specificity. Rheumatoid factors, which could cause false-positive reactions, were controlled for.