title: The use of flow cytometry as a diagnostic test for malaria parasites.
abstract: A total of 453 clinical blood samples were determined for malaria parasites by flow cytometric assay (FCM) and reagents from Sysmex Corporation, Japan. In this study, the FCM greatly simplified and accelerated parasite detection, with sensitivity of 91.26%, specificity 86.28% and accuracy 87.42%. Overall, the parasite counts by flow cytometric measurement correlated well with the parasitemia measured by microscopic assay (regression coefficient = 0.9409). The detection limit was 0.05-0.1% parasitemia. No evidence of malaria parasites in either blood donor volunteers or other disease patients groups was determined by FCM. However, 48 samples who had been treated with antimalarial drugs and whose parasite microscopic counts were negative, showed false-positive results. When the data of these 48 samples were analyzed, they were found to have high levels of reticulocytes, ranging from 2.0-18.9%. This finding suggested that a high reticulocyte concentration in the blood may interfere with the performance of the FCM. Further improvement, by eliminating this interference, will make the FCM one of the most promising tests for malaria diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. tmvwc@mahidol.ac.th
authors.forename: Varee
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wongchotigul
authors.forename: Nirut
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Suwanna
authors.forename: Srivicha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Krudsood
authors.forename: Duangrudee
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chindanond
authors.forename: Shigeyuki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kano
authors.forename: Nobuaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hanaoka
authors.forename: Yasumasa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Akai
authors.forename: Yasunori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Maekawa
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Somei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kojima
authors.forename: Sornchai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Looareesuwan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001399:Azure Stains; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D001782:Blood Donors; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods; D018512:Parasitemia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D010966:Plasmodium vivax / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013785:Thailand
chemical_list: D001399:Azure Stains