Table 1. Clinical and laboratory features of patients with visceral leishmaniasis (VL).

Parameters	PatientVL	Normal
Number	Male (n = 20), Female (n = 20)	endemic area (n = 20), non-endemic area (n = 20)
Age (yr)	30±2.25	28±4.32
Height (m)	1.55±0.72	1.65±0.52
Weight (kg)	38.50±4.25	60±5.25
Body Mass Index (BMI)a	16±0.55	22±1.25
Duration of illness (month)	4.02±0.25	Not applicable
RBC count	0.92–2.5×106/µl	4.5–6.2×106/µl
Leukocyte count (/mm3)	3.48–3.55×103	5–11×103
Hemoglobin concn. (g/dl)	5.32±0.32	11.5±2.2
Mean cell hemoglobin concn. (g/dl)	30–31 g/dl	30–36 g/dl
Hematocrit (%)	35	41–53
Reticulocyte count (%)	4.25–5.05	0.5–2.5
Spleen size (cm)	10.72±1.06	Not palpable
Splenic aspirate scoreb	4.05±0.17	Negative
Bilirubin (mg/dl)	1.5–2.5	0.9–1
Albumin (g/dl)	3.0–3.5	3.5–5.5
Aminotransferase	Normal	Normal
Alkalinephosphatase	Normal	Normal
RBC-ELISAc	0.9–1.12	0.2–0.3
BSM-ELISAd	0.77–1.1	0.16–0.23
Parasite-ELISAe	1.1–1.7	0.22–0.32

^aBMI is weight in kilograms divided by height square in meter, normal BMI = 18.5–24.9.

^bSplenic aspirate score is taken to be 4 when the number of parasites per microscopic field ranges from 1–10.

^cRBC-ELISA refers to the antigen-ELISA as described elsewhere [9]. The presence of 9-O-AcSGPs on RBC_VL was determined by exploiting the binding specificity of a lectin, Achatinin-H, which has a restricted specificity towards 9-O-acetylated sialic acids [62] and therefore used as coating antigen. Briefly, Achatinin-H was immobilized in a 96-well plate and allowed to bind with RBC in 4°C for overnight. After washing, bound RBC was lysed by double distilled water. The extent of binding was determined by using a chromogenic substrate 2,7-diamino fluorine dihydrochloride and measuring absorbance values at 620 nm.

^dAnti-9-O-AcSGP antibody was detected by using BSM as coating antigen as described elsewhere [22].

^eParasite specific antibody was detected by using parasite lysate as coating antigen as described elsewhere [8].