Reliability of Rapid Diagnostic Test for Diagnosing Peripheral and Placental Malaria in an Area of Unstable Malaria Transmission in Eastern Sudan

Overview

Journal Diagn Pathol

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Pathology

Date 2013 Apr 17

PMID 23587371

Citations 12

Authors

Awadalla H Kashif

Gamal K Adam

Ahmed A Mohmmed

Salah E Elzaki

Ahmed M Abdelhalim

Ishag Adam

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Diagnosing Plasmodium falciparum malaria during pregnancy is a great challenge for clinicians because of the low density of parasites in the peripheral blood and parasite sequestration in the placenta. Nevertheless, few data on the use of malaria rapid diagnostic test (RDT) during pregnancy have been published.

Methods: P. falciparum infections were assessed in 156 febrile pregnant women by microscopic examination of their blood smears and by RDT and polymerase chain reactions (PCR). In addition, 150 women were assessed at the time of delivery by microscopy, RDT, PCR and placental histology investigations. The study was conducted at the Gadarif Hospital, Eastern Sudan. The SD Bioline P. f / P. v (Bio Standard Diagnostics, Gurgaon, Korea) RDT kit was evaluated in this study.

Results: Among the febrile pregnant women, 17 (11.0%), 26 (16.7%) and 18 (11.5%) positive cases of P. falciparum were detected by microscopy, RDT, and PCR, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the microscopy was 94.4% and 100%, respectively. The corresponding values for RDT evaluation were 83.3% and 92.0%, as compared with PCR as the gold standard.While there were no detected cases of malaria by microscopic examination of blood smears, 27 (18.0%), 21(14.0%) and 46 (30.7%) out of the 150 placentae investigated had P. falciparum as determined by RDT, PCR, and histology, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity for RDT was 17.4% and 81.7%, respectively. The corresponding values for PCR were 6.5% and 82.7%, where histology was used as the gold standard.

Conclusions: The RDT kit used in this study has poor performance for peripheral and placental P. falciparum malaria detection in this setting.

Virtual Slides: The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1092363465928479.

Citing Articles

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Systematic review of the diagnostic accuracy of thick smear compared to polymerase chain reaction for pregnancy-associated malaria, 2010-2022.

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Performance Evaluation of Malaria Pf/Pv Combo Test Kit at Highly Malaria-Endemic Area, Southern Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

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Accuracy of One Step malaria rapid diagnostic test (RDT) in detecting Plasmodium falciparum placental malaria infection in women living in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Megnekou R, Djontu J, Nana B, Bigoga J, Fotso M, Fogang B Malar J. 2018; 17(1):450.

PMID: 30514316 PMC: 6278062. DOI: 10.1186/s12936-018-2595-8.

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