Estimated of auto antibodies levels as (Rheumatoid factor “RF” and antinuclear antibodies”ANA”) in serum of suspected patients with Malta fever

Malta fever is disease mainly caused by Brucella sp. as B. melitensis and B. abortus, its prevalent on the Southern and Eastern of the Mediterranean basin, particularly in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Syria, and in the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Is a major zoonosis disease in the worldwide because its reservoir is a variety of domesticated animals, and the human infect results from direct or indirect contact with animal sources. The diagnosis of Malta fever depends on clinical features, and they must usually be supported by results of bacteriology and/or serology. Numerous serological procedures have been tried in the diagnosis of human brucellosis, the most widely used was the standard tube agglutination test, Rose -Bengal test and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Recently, late stage of brucellosis may be inducing immune response to form of some auto-antibodies as rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA). This study was objective to evaluation the results of some immunological tests that used widely for diagnosis of human infection with Malta fever, Estimation of RF and ANA levels in serum of patient suspected, and determination the related them with Malta fever. The results showed equal distribution to Malta fever occurs between male and female; 15 (62.5%) and, 16 (61.5%) respectively. Also 15 (53.6%) are quality positive for RF compare to healthy control group with significantly differences (P ? 0.01). The results of this study showed 12 (66.6%) of infected patients were positively both of rose and RF tests, 12 (33.4%) were positively to rose test but negative to RF test, and 13 (34.6%) were positively to RF test but negatively to rose test compared to control healthy group with significantly differences (P ? 0.01). Additionally the estimation of ANA in patient serum specimens that were analyzed by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) were showed highly levels of ANA in patients group compare to control group with highly significant value (P=0.01). So when compare between immunological tests in this study, ELISA of ANA test was positive in 31 cases (62%), 12 cases (24%), and 25 cases (50%) were positive for RF and Rose tests respectively with significant and highly significant between them. As a conclusion, the highly level of ANA with positively both of RF and rose tests may be indicate in diagnosis of brucellosis especially in late stage.