Abstract
BackgroundAbout 90% of all malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa occur in children under five years. Fast and reliable diagnosis of malaria requires confirmation of the presence of malaria parasites in the blood of patients with fever or history suggestive of malaria; hence a prompt and accurate diagnosis of malaria is the key to effective disease management. Confirmation of malaria infection requires the availability of a rapid, sensitive, and specific testing at an affordable cost. We compared two recent methods (the novel Partec Rapid Malaria Test® (PT) and the Binax Now® Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (BN RDT) with the conventional Giemsa stain microscopy (GM) for the diagnosis of malaria among children in a clinical laboratory of a hospital in a rural endemic area of Ghana.MethodsBlood samples were collected from 263 children admitted with fever or a history of fever to the pediatric clinic of the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital. The three different test methods PT, BN RDT and GM were performed independently by well trained and competent laboratory staff to assess the presence of malaria parasites. Results were analyzed and compared using GM as the reference standard.ResultsIn 107 (40.7%) of 263 study participants, Plasmodium sp. was detected by GM. PT and BN RDT showed positive results in 111 (42.2%) and 114 (43.4%), respectively. Compared to GM reference standard, the sensitivities of the PT and BN RDT were 100% (95% CI: 96.6-100) and 97.2% (95% CI: 92.0-99.4), respectively, specificities were 97.4% (95% CI: 93.6-99.3) and 93.6% (95% CI: 88.5-96.9), respectively. There was a strong agreement (kappa) between the applied test methods (GM vs PT: 0.97; p < 0.001 and GM vs BN RDT: 0.90; p < 0.001). The average turnaround time per tests was 17 minutes.ConclusionIn this study two rapid malaria tests, PT and BN RDT, demonstrated a good quality of their performance compared to conventional GM. Both methods require little training, have short turnaround times, are applicable as well as affordable and can therefore be considered as alternative diagnostic tools in malaria endemic areas. The species of Plasmodium cannot be identified.
Highlights
About 90% of all malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa occur in children under five years
Giemsa stain microscopy Overall, GM expert microscopy (Table 2) detected Plasmodia in 107 blood films (40.7%) with no discordant readings between the two independent microscopists. Out of these positive films 105 slides (98.1%) were positive with mono-infection of P. falciparum (Pf), of which 2 slides showed Pf gametocytes in addition to Pf trophozoites, 1 case (0.95%) each was positive with monoinfection of P. malariae (Pm) and P. ovale (Po), respectively. 156 films (59.3%) were negative of which 2 films (1.3%) were positive for Pf gametocytes only
Partec Rapid Malaria Test® (PT) and Binax Now® Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (BN rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs)) require little training only, have very short turnaround times, are applicable under field conditions as well as affordable even in rural areas. Both methods can be considered as alternative diagnostic tools in malaria endemic areas in addition to or instead of GM
Summary
About 90% of all malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa occur in children under five years. We compared two recent methods (the novel Partec Rapid Malaria Test® (PT) and the Binax ® Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (BN RDT) with the conventional Giemsa stain microscopy (GM) for the diagnosis of malaria among children in a clinical laboratory of a hospital in a rural endemic area of Ghana. Prompt parasitological quality control systems [2] continue to hinder effective malaria control Another major contributing factor is that the laboratory diagnosis of malaria has up to now relied nearly exclusively on light microscopy which is a valuable technique when performed correctly but unreliable and wasteful when poorly executed. This study aimed at evaluating and comparing the novel Partec Rapid Malaria Test® (PT) (Partec GmbH, Münster, Germany) and the recently established Binax ® Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (BN RDT) (Binax, Inc., Portland, ME, USA) in malaria diagnosis among children from an endemic area using Giemsa stain microscopy as the reference standard. In this study we focused on the assessment of test result quality and applicability under the field conditions of a rural hospital laboratory
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
