In Iran, $Plasmodium$ $vivax$ is responsible for more than 80% of the infected cases of malaria per year. Control interventions for vivax malaria in humans rely mainly on developed diagnostic methods. Recombinant $P.$ $vivax$ apical membrane antigen-1 (rPvAMA-1) has been reported to achieve designing rapid, sensitive, and specific molecular diagnosis. This study aimed to perform isolation and expression of a rPvAMA-1, derived from Iranian patients residing in an endemic area. Then, the diagnostic efficiency of the characterized Iranian PvAMA-1 was assessed using an indirect ELISA method. For this purpose, a partial region of AMA-1 gene was amplified, cloned, and expressed in pET32a plasmid. The recombinant $His-tagged$ protein was purified and used to coat the ELISA plate. Antibody detection was assessed by indirect ELISA using rPvAMA-1. The validity of the ELISA method for detection of anti-$P.$ $vivax$ antibodies in the field was compared to light microscopy on 84 confirmed $P.$ $vivax$ patients and compared to 84 non-$P.$ $vivax$ infected individuals. The ELISA cut-off value was calculated as the mean+2SD of OD values of the people living in malaria endemic areas from a south part of Iran. We found a cut-off point of OD=0.311 that showed the best correlation between the sera confirmed with $P.$ $vivax$ infection and healthy control sera. A sensitivity of 81.0% and specificity of 84.5% were found at this cut off titer. A good degree of statistical agreement was found between ELISA using rPvAMA-1 and light microscopy (0.827) by Kappa analysis.