Merits and Pitfalls of Currently Used Diagnostic Tools in Mycetoma

Overview

Journal PLoS Negl Trop Dis

Specialties Infectious Diseases
Tropical Medicine

Date 2014 Jul 4

PMID 24992636

Citations 43

Authors

Wendy W J van de Sande

Ahmed H Fahal

Michael Goodfellow

El Sheikh Mahgoub

Oliverio Welsh

Ed E Zijlstra

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Treatment of mycetoma depends on the causative organism and since many organisms, both actinomycetes (actinomycetoma) and fungi (eumycetoma), are capable of producing mycetoma, an accurate diagnosis is crucial. Currently, multiple diagnostic tools are used to determine the extent of infections and to identify the causative agents of mycetoma. These include various imaging, cytological, histopathological, serological, and culture techniques; phenotypic characterisation; and molecular diagnostics. In this review, we summarize these techniques and identify their merits and pitfalls in the identification of the causative agents of mycetoma and the extent of the disease. We also emphasize the fact that there is no ideal diagnostic tool available to identify the causative agents and that future research should focus on the development of new and reliable diagnostic tools.

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