Abstract
The large number of deaths caused by malaria each year has increased interest in the development of effective malaria diagnoses. At the early-stage of infection, patients show non-specific symptoms or are asymptomatic, which makes it difficult for clinical diagnosis, especially in non-endemic areas. Alternative diagnostic methods that are timely and effective are required to identify infections, particularly in field settings. This article reviews conventional malaria diagnostic methods together with recently developed techniques for both malaria detection and infected erythrocyte separation. Although many alternative techniques have recently been proposed and studied, dielectrophoretic and magnetophoretic approaches are among the promising new techniques due to their high specificity for malaria parasite-infected red blood cells. The two approaches are discussed in detail, including their principles, types, applications and limitations. In addition, other recently developed techniques, such as cell deformability and morphology, are also overviewed in this article.
Highlights
Malaria is a mosquito borne disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium, and five species are reported for their infections in humans; namely, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium knowlesi [1, 2]
In Thailand, the Plasmodium species that cause the majority of malaria in humans are P. falciparum (44 %) and P. vivax (47 %), and most cases are reported in regions bordering between Thailand and Myanmar [2,3,4,5,6]
This article aims to review recently developed techniques of malaria diagnosis, both for conventional techniques such as microscopy; rapid diagnostic test (RDT); molecular diagnoses, dominated by PCR-based techniques; and the alternative techniques of dielectrophoretic and magnetophoretic principles, which are based on physical properties of the infected RBC (iRBC)
Summary
Malaria is a mosquito borne disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium, and five species are reported for their infections in humans; namely, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium knowlesi [1, 2]. In Thailand, the Plasmodium species that cause the majority of malaria in humans are P. falciparum (44 %) and P. vivax (47 %), and most cases are reported in regions bordering between Thailand and Myanmar [2,3,4,5,6]. In addition to P. falciparum and P. vivax, another malaria parasite species, P. knowlesi, is emerging as a health issue in Southeast Asia. This zoonotic species possesses the potential for infection of humans, with a natural reservoir in monkeys [7]. For instance in Borneo hospitals of Malaysia, the prevalence of malaria infections by this parasite was as high as 83 % [8]
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