A clinician who faces a case of fever would need answers to the following questions: Is it malaria? If yes; What is the species? Is it severe? Is it new/ recurrence? Is it active? At present, ONLY the peripheral smear can provide answers to ALL these questions on a single…
Non-Microscopic Tests Several attempts have been made to take the malaria diagnosis out of the realm of the microscope and the microscopist. Important advances have been made in diagnostic testing, including fluorescence microscopy of parasite nuclei stained with acridine orange, rapid dipstick immunoassay, and Polymerase Chain Reaction assays.[1] These tests…
See Kakkilaya BS. Rapid Diagnosis of Malaria. Lab Medicine. 2003 Aug;8(34):602-608 [See] Although the peripheral blood smear examination that provides the most comprehensive information on a single test format has been the “gold standard” for the diagnosis of malaria, the immunochromatographic tests for the detection of malaria antigens, developed in…
Diagnosis of malaria involves identification of malaria parasite or its antigens/products in the blood of the patient. Although this seems simple, the efficacy of the diagnosis is subject to many factors. The different forms of the four malaria species; the different stages of erythrocytic schizogony; the endemicity of different species;…
