ArticleAfrican journal of infectious diseases2011
Sensitivity of microscopy compared to molecular diagnosis of p. Falciparum: implications on malaria treatment in epidemic areas in kenya.
Article in African journal of infectious diseases, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact on malaria of biannual treatment with azithromycin in children age less than 5 years: a prospective study.Malaria journal · 2019Trial
- First molecular evidence of hemotropicOpen veterinary journal · 2025Article
- Myoglobin Cast Nephropathy Diagnosed on Renal Biopsy in a Patient Treated for Malarial Infection.Case reports in nephrology · 2024Article
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- Malaria Detection Accelerated: Combing a High-Throughput NanoZoomer Platform with a ParasiteMacro Algorithm.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Utilization of 18s ribosomal RNA LAMP for detecting Plasmodium falciparum in microscopy and rapid diagnostic test negative patients.PloS one · 2022Article
- Advances and challenges in automated malaria diagnosis using digital microscopy imaging with artificial intelligence tools: A review.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Multiple blood pathogen infections in apparently healthy sheltered dogs in southern Thailand.International journal of veterinary science and medicine · 2022Article
- The effect of malaria on haemoglobin concentrations: a nationally representative household fixed-effects study of 17,599 children under 5 years of age in Burkina Faso.Malaria journal · 2021Article
- Prevalence of sickle cell disorders and malaria infection in children aged 1-12 years in the Volta Region, Ghana: a community-based study.Malaria journal · 2020Article
- A focus on improving molecular diagnostic approaches to malaria control and elimination in low transmission settings: Review.Parasite epidemiology and control · 2019Review
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- Micro-epidemiology of mixed-species malaria infections in a rural population living in the Colombian Amazon region.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Evaluation of the utility value of three diagnostic methods in the detection of malaria parasites in endemic area.Malaria journal · 2017Article
- Plasmodium malariae in the Colombian Amazon region: you don't diagnose what you don't suspect.Malaria journal · 2016Article
- Imported Malaria over Fifteen Years in an Inner City Teaching Hospital of Washington DC.The Korean journal of parasitology · 2016Article
- Microscopic and molecular evidence of the presence of asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax infections in an area with low, seasonal and unstable malaria transmission in Ethiopia.BMC infectious diseases · 2015Article
- Comparison of four methods for extracting DNA from dried blood on filter paper for PCR targeting the mitochondrial Plasmodium genome.Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Detection of Plasmodium species by microscopy has been the gold standard for diagnosis of malaria for more than a century. Despite the fact that there is a significant decline in the number of positive cases reported from microscopy, antimalarial drugs prescriptions are on continuous increase as patients present with symptoms of malaria. This makes it difficult to establish accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of light microscopy in diagnosis of malaria in epidemic areas. This study was designed to compare microscopy with polymerase chain reaction as diagnostic methods for malaria in three epidemic areas in Kenya. A total of 356 patients presenting with malaria symptoms were diagnosed by microscopy and dried blood filter paper spots were collected from patient in Kisii, West Pokot and Narok districts. Plasmodium falciparum DNA was extracted from the dried blood filter samples. Primers specific for the Plasmodium Species were designed and used in a two step amplification of the Pfmdr gene. The PCR products were analyzed in ethidium bromide stained 1.5% agarose gel. It was found that 72 out of 350 specimens diagnosed as negative were positive for P. falciparum by nested PCR, while 6 which were microscopy positive were confirmed so by nested PCR. This study demonstrates that there is a high level of misdiagnosis which may either lead to denial for deserved treatment or undeserved treatment. Nested PCR detection of malaria parasites is a very useful complement to microscopy although it is expensive and takes long time. Additionally, smear negative patients suspected to have malaria should be subjected to PCR diagnosis to improve rational drug use. The economic burden of misdiagnosis and mistreatment of malaria outweighs that of PCR diagnosis, hence this diagnostic mode could be tenable in the long run even in rural areas.
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