%0 artículo %A Peraza, Johnny %E Urbina, Andrea %E Zeledón, Rodrigo %D 1998 %G eng %T Zymodeme and serodeme characterization of Leishmania Isolates obtained from Costa Rican patients %U http://hdl.handle.net/11056/24374 %X Human leishmaniasis is widespread through- out Central America and constitutes an important public health problem. Annual incidence is esti- mated to be about 20,000 cases (Carreira et al. 1995), of which 4,000 to 5,000 correspond to Costa Rica (Zeledón 1992). The disease exists under dif- ferent clinical manifestations and in a variety of ecological and epidemiological patterns (Zeledón 1985) making it a complex problem that is diffi- cult to manage. The identity of the Leishmania species involved is a factor that largely determines the clinical mani- festations of the disease (Lainson & Shaw 1987, Alexander & Russell 1992) and its response to treatment (Navin et al. 1992, Grogl et al. 1992). The World Health Organization (WHO 1990) rec- ommends isoenzyme electrophoresis and the use of specific monoclonal antibodies as appropriate methods for characterizing Leishmania. In Costa Rica, although it is known that L. panamensis species is the principal etiological agent of leishmaniasis (Zeledón 1992), there are no detailed and extensive taxonomic studies of the implicated parasites in different areas of the coun- try. Here, we report the identification by isoenzyme electrophoresis and indirect immunofluorescence (IFA) with monoclonal antibodies of 34 Leishma- nia strains, isolated from different geographical and ecological areas of Costa Rica, from patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis.