Indirect Heamagglutination as An Immunodiagnostic Technique For Cystic Echinococcosis In Iraqi Patients

Background: The aim is to determine the effectiveness of indirect Haemagglutination (IHA) as diagnostic techniques for Cystic Echinococcosis in Iraqi and possible correlation of age and gender in disease occurrence. Patients and Methods: Patients presented with clinical manifestation of hydatidosis (202) were selectively enrolled in this study. IHA technique using sensitized sheep red blood cells coated with an Echinococcus granulosus antigen was applied. Results: One hundred and one patients (50%) were males, with the mean age (33.50±7. 8) years. The rest were females with mean age (29.78±9. 6) years. IHA positive cases were (19.3 % ) and the reminders (80.7%) were negative.IHA positive females (22.8%) compared with (15.8%) in males without statis-tical significant difference (P Value = 0.212) nor correlation between gender and IHA results (P Value= 0.214) . The majority of patients belongs to (24-30) years, ( 31-36) years and (18-23) years age groups.Among males, higher number of positive cases at (31-36) years followed by (24-30) years and (49-54) years. Among females, higher number of positive cases at(24-30) years followed by (37-42) years and (18-23) years. Statistical significant difference (P Value = 0.001) reported between genders according to age group distribution without significant correlation between age group according to gender and IH