ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the immunological techniques that can be used to diagnose infections of the cestodes. Cestodes have selected humans as hosts basically at two levels. The first includes the human small intestine as the site of residence and development to maturation by several adult stage tapeworm species belonging either to the "loweror "higher'' cestodes. At another level, humans can function as intermediate hosts for some cestode species. For infections with the larvae of cestodes, imaging techniques are used primarily to diagnose and characterize the respective diseases. The role of immunodiagnosis is to confirm clinical findings or to provide diagnostic help with detailed information on parasite or host peculiarities. Immunodiagnosis of echinococcosis has been reviewed comprehensively in various articles. Mass screening programs for human cystic echinococcosis have been carried out using serological tests in many endemic areas so far. The chapter discusses skin tests and basophil degranulation tests.
