ArticleEuropean journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology2018
Multiplex real-time PCR for diagnosing malaria in a non-endemic setting: a prospective comparison to conventional methods.
Article in European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Misidentification of Plasmodium ovale as Plasmodium vivax malaria by a microscopic method: a meta-analysis of confirmed P. ovale cases.Scientific reports · 2020Pooled it
- Single immunization with genetically attenuated Pf∆mei2 (GA2) parasites by mosquito bite in controlled human malaria infection: a placebo-controlled randomized trial.Nature medicine · 2025Trial
- Evaluation of microscopy and first response™ malaria Ag PAN/Pf RDT compared to qPCR and hemoglobin levels in pregnant women at delivery in Busia County, Western Kenya.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum histidine rich protein 2/3 gene deletions affecting rapid diagnostic test performance in travellers.Journal of travel medicine · 2026Article
- Epidemiological characteristics and molecular identification ofJournal of parasitic diseases : official organ of the Indian Society for Parasitology · 2024Article
- Review
- Malaria reporting timeliness analysis and factors associated with delayed notification, 2018-2022, Nepal.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Real-time PCR detection of mixed Plasmodium ovale curtisi and wallikeri infections in human and mosquito hosts.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- Performance of a novel melting curve-based qPCR assay for malaria parasites in routine clinical practice in non-endemic setting.Malaria journal · 2023Article
- Accuracy of diagnosis among clinical malaria patients: comparing microscopy, RDT and a highly sensitive quantitative PCR looking at the implications for submicroscopic infections.Malaria journal · 2023Article
- Creation and preclinical evaluation of genetically attenuated malaria parasites arresting growth late in the liver.NPJ vaccines · 2022Article
- Evaluating performance of multiplex real time PCR for the diagnosis of malaria at elimination targeted low transmission settings of Ethiopia.Malaria journal · 2022Article
- Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for the diagnosis of imported malaria: a narrative review.Le infezioni in medicina · 2021Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Almost a decade ago our diagnostic laboratory implemented an in-house real-time PCR for the detection of Plasmodium DNA to diagnose malaria in parallel with conventional diagnostics, i.e., microscopy (thick and thin smears), quantitative buffy coat microscopy (QBC), and a rapid diagnostic test (RDT). Here we report our experiences and make a comparison between the different diagnostic procedures used in this non-endemic setting. All patients during the period February 2009-December 2017 suspected of malaria were prospectively tested at the moment of sample collection. Both PCR and conventional malaria diagnostics were carried out on a total of 839 specimens from 825 patients. In addition, three Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) patients were closely followed by real-time PCR and microscopy after treatment. Overall, 56 samples (55 patients) tested positive by real-time PCR, of which six were missed by microscopy and seven by QBC. RDT showed fairly good results in detecting Pf, whereas specificity was not optimal. RDT failed to detect 10 of 17 non-Pf PCR positive specimens. One Plasmodium malariae patient would have been missed if only conventional diagnostic tests had been used. The high sensitivity of the PCR was confirmed by the number of PCR positive, microscopy negative post-treatment samples. In conclusion, within our routine diagnostic setting, malaria real-time PCR not only showed a high level of agreement with the conventional methods used, but also showed higher sensitivity and better specificity. Still, for complete replacement of the conventional procedures in a non-endemic setting, the time-to-results of the real-time PCR is currently too long.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.