Recently, our group has shown that parasite-specific IgG can be readily detected in urine of
individuals with chronic opisthorchiasis [20] which has implications for the study of opisthorchiasis-induced hepatobiliary and renal abnormalities as well as the detection of people
at risk of developing OV-induced CCA. The utility of urine samples, particularly ease and non invasiveness of the collecting technique, has not been examined to date. In the current study, we developed and optimized an ELISA protocol to quantify the level of crude excretorysecretory
(ES) OV antigen extract in urine samples and then assessed its diagnostic accuracy for the detection of OV-infection in field setting, with urine from individuals from OV endemic areas at variable infection intensities. We then compared the relationship between the detection of OV infection by our novel urine OV-ES assay and OV infection determined by the current “gold standard method” of FECT. This study is the first report on the performance of a method for urinary antigen detection for the diagnosis of opisthorchiasis.