Dure Samin Akram, Khurshid Abbasi.
Comparative study for diagnosis of Plasmodium Falciparum by Immunochromatographic Technology versus standard methods.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;9(5):217-9.

The diagnosis of falciparum malaria is dependent on the identification of the parasite on thick/thin film which needs expertise of the person reviewing the slide. Thus false negative rates may vary. Sometimes availability of appropriate laboratory facilities may pose a problem. A new method of diagnosis based on immunochromatographic technology (ICT. Malaria P1) has been quoted in literature to be rapid, easy and yet reliable. ICT detects an antigen produced by Plasmodium falciparum. The test becomes negative after 1-2 weeks following curative treatment. Thus it identifies only active parasitaemia and not past infestations. In this study the ICT Malaria has been compared with standard MP thick and thin film diagnosis on 22 samples from febrile children. The objectives were to measure the sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of ICT as compared to blood films in children. The results revealed that ICT had the sensitivity of 90% and specificity was 83.33%. The positive predictive value was 81.81%. An attempt has also been made to confirm whether ICT method identifies only active infestation. The results of the second part of the study were on confirmed falciparum (by blood film examination) checked by ICT 15 days after appropriate anti-malarial therapy was given to these children. Twenty-one of a total of twenty-three children had a negative ICT test and a negative blood film examination. Thus ICT was highly sensitive in identifying only those children who had parasitaemia and not those in whom the parasitaemia had been effectively treated. This reduces unnecessary medication of patients suspected to have falciparum malaria.

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