EVALUATION OF MIDI PARASEP® FAECAL PARASITE CONCENTRATOR FOR THE DETECTION OF INTESTINAL PARASITIC INFECTIONS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Direct stool examination is the gold standard technique for diagnosing intestinal parasitic infection.Stool examination by stained smear, concentration techniques and sometimes culture are thecommonly used. The sensitivity of direct smear is low and requires repeated smears. Formalinethylacetate concentration method is more sensitive, but time consuming. Midi-Parasep® concentratoris a new diagnostic tool used as a routine stool examination for intestinal parasitic infectionsworldwide. There’s a lack of reports which evaluate the efficacy of Midi-Parasep® procedurein areas of limited diagnostic facilities and poor resource settings. Therefore, our currentstudy represents the first report that assessed the Midi-Parasep® technique by comparing its performanceto other economic standard measures like modified Ridley-Allen and formol detergentconcentration techniques for detection of intestinal parasites in human stool samples. We examined306 fecal samples using Midi-Parasep fecal parasite concentrator, modified Ridley-Allenconcentration and formol detergent concentration techniques. The best over-all sensitivity(71.7%) was obtained for Midi-Parasep technique followed by formol detergent concentration(66.7%) then modified Ridley-Allen technique (51.7%). Regarding, helminths parasites, the mostsensitive was formol detergent concentration technique (70%), followed by the Midi-Parasep technique (60%), and Modified Ridley-Allen technique (33.3%). Referring to the intestinal protozoa,midi-Parasep technique had the highest sensitivity (83.3%), followed by modified Ridley-Allen procedure (70%) then formol detergent concentration technique (63.3%).