ArticleTransactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene2025
Diagnostic sensitivity of formalin-fixed faecal microscopy for the detection of soil-transmitted helminths.
Article in Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Diagnostic Sensitivity of the McMaster Technique for Detecting Intestinal Parasites in Human Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2026Review
- Molecular identification of hookworm infection in humans, dogs and cats in Lao People's Democratic Republic.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2026Article
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7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFaecal microscopy is the mainstay of soil-transmitted helminth diagnosis and commonly completed on formalin-fixed samples when resources are insufficient to analyse fresh samples. This study assessed the diagnostic sensitivity of microscopic techniques using formalin-fixed samples.
methodsFormalin-fixed faecal samples from 574 individuals were tested by the formalin-ethyl acetate concentration technique (FECT), Malachite smear, McMaster and McMaster2 methods. Agreement between tests was assessed by Kappa. Bayesian latent class models and a composite reference standard estimated the diagnostic sensitivity of each test.
resultsModerate-to-good agreement between tests was observed for A. lumbricoides. Agreement was poorer for hookworm and Trichuris trichiura. The FECT (72.70%, credible interval [CrI]: 68.92-76.56%) and McMaster2 method (67.93%, 95% CrIs: 62.41-73.31%) had the highest sensitivities for A. lumbricoides. For hookworm, the McMaster2 method (70.56%, 95% CrIs: 64.10-76.96%) was more sensitive than all other tests. For T. trichiura, the McMaster (90.10%, 95% CrIs: 83.29-94.67%) and McMaster2 (89.3%, 95% CrIs: 82.28-94.52%) methods were the most sensitive.
conclusionsThe McMaster2 method is a viable alternative to FECT and provides important information on the intensity of infection. The effect of formalin-fixation on test performance may not be as great as previously assumed. This study reports formalin-fixed sensitivities similar to previous estimates using fresh samples.
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