COMPARISON OF DIAGNOSTIC METHODS FOR THE DETECTION AND SPECIATION OF MALARIAL PARASITE IN URBAN KOLKATA, INDIA

PRIYANKA SAHA¹, SWAGATA GANGULY²*, PABITRA SAHA³, MOYTREY CHATTERJEE⁴, P.K. KUNDU⁵, A.K. MAJI^6
1Department of Microbiology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, 108 C.R. Avenue, Kolkata, 700073, West Bengal, India
²Department of Microbiology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, 108 C.R. Avenue, Kolkata, 700073, West Bengal, India
³Department of Microbiology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, 108 C.R. Avenue, Kolkata, 700073, West Bengal, India
⁴Department of Microbiology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, 108 C.R. Avenue, Kolkata, 700073, West Bengal, India
⁵Department of Microbiology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, 108 C.R. Avenue, Kolkata, 700073, West Bengal, India
⁶Department of Microbiology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, 108 C.R. Avenue, Kolkata, 700073, West Bengal, India
* Corresponding Author : swagatamedicine@gmail.com

Received : 13-06-2014     Accepted : 01-12-2015     Published : 15-12-2015
Volume : 7     Issue : 2       Pages : 160 - 163
Int J Parasitol Res 7.2 (2015):160-163

Keywords : Microscopy, Antigen, PCR, Malaria, Pf, Pv
Academic Editor : Dr Sandipan Ganguly, Prof. Madhusudan Das, Jutta Marfurt
Conflict of Interest : The authors have no conflicts of interest concerning the work reported in this paper
Acknowledgements/Funding : This work was funded by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal. Foremost we are earnestly thankful to our patients for their whole-hearted co-operation during the entire study. We deeply acknowledge Ritick Paul and Asis Bhowmick of Malaria Clinic, CSTM for their constant support. Lastly we are thankful to Prof. Nandita Basu, Director, CSTM for her encouragement and giving us kind permission to publish the data generated in our study. This study is a part of MD (Microbiology) dissertation work of Dr. Priyanka Saha under the West Bengal University Health Sciences
Author Contribution : AKM, SG conceptualized and designed the study protocol; PS, SG, PS, and MC performed the PCR and other diagnostics and interpretation of data; AKM, SG and PKK drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript

Objectives: The present study was done to compare RDK, PCR-based diagnosis with conventional microscopic peripheral blood smear examination for detection of uncomplicated malaria in urban Kolkata. Methods: We collected whole blood samples (N = 100) from febrile patients attending Malaria Clinic, CSTM, Kolkata, India. Uncomplicated malaria was diagnosed by microscopy, rapid diagnostic kit (RDK) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to compare RDK, PCR-based diagnosis with conventional microscopic peripheral blood smear examination (PBS). Results: We identified 39 infections, 18 of which were caused by Plasmodium vivax, 18 by Plasmodium falciparum, and 3 were mixed infections harbouring both Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum. The sensitivity and specificity of each method to detect plasmodial parasite varied as 87.25% and 92.4% for microscopy, 79.5% and 88.4% for RDK and 100% and 100% for PCR, respectively. All samples showing disagreement among the methods were reevaluated by repeat testing. PCR detected parasites in the 5 false-negative samples as found both by microscopy and RDK. The mixed infections were detected as Plasmodium falciparum by PCR, while the other methods diagnosed them as mixed infections. Two cases of vivax infections were detected as genus plasmodium by PCR. Conclusion: The use of the microscopic method for malaria detection is suitable for its low cost but diagnostic accuracy can be enhanced by PCR-based method where available thus facilitating proper treatment. RDK can be applied in fieldwork.